Thread

1. Re: [PATCHES] Postgres-6.3.2 locale patch

   Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu> — 1998-06-03T14:24:17Z

   Hi. I'm looking for non-English-using Postgres hackers to participate in
   implementing NCHAR() and alternate character sets in Postgres. I think
   I've worked out how to do the implementation (not the details, just a
   strategy) so that multiple character sets will be allowed in a single
   database, additional character sets can be loaded at run-time, and so
   that everything will behave transparently.
   
   I would propose to do this for v6.4 as user-defined packages (with
   compile-time parser support) on top of the existing USE_LOCALE and MB
   patches so that the existing compile-time options are not changed or
   damaged.
   
   So, the initial questions:
   
   1) Is the NCHAR/NVARCHAR/CHARACTER SET syntax and usage acceptable for
   non-English applications? Do other databases use this SQL92 convention,
   or does it have difficulties?
   
   2) Would anyone be interested in helping to define the character sets
   and helping to test? I don't know the correct collation sequences and
   don't think they would display properly on my screen...
   
   3) I'd like to implement the existing Cyrillic and EUC-jp character
   sets, and also some European languages (French and ??) which use the
   Latin-1 alphabet but might have different collation sequences. Any
   suggestions for candidates??
   
                          - Tom
   
   

2. Re: [HACKERS] Re: [PATCHES] Postgres-6.3.2 locale patch

   Patrice Hédé <patrice@idf.net> — 1998-06-03T15:36:55Z

   Hi Tom,
   
   > I would propose to do this for v6.4 as user-defined packages (with
   > compile-time parser support) on top of the existing USE_LOCALE and MB
   > patches so that the existing compile-time options are not changed or
   > damaged.
   
   Be careful that system locales may not be here, though you may need the
   locale information in Postgres. They may also be broken (which is in fact
   often the case), so don't depend on them.
   
   > So, the initial questions:
   > 
   > 1) Is the NCHAR/NVARCHAR/CHARACTER SET syntax and usage acceptable for
   > non-English applications? Do other databases use this SQL92 convention,
   > or does it have difficulties?
   
   Don't know (yet).
   > 
   > 2) Would anyone be interested in helping to define the character sets
   > and helping to test? I don't know the correct collation sequences and
   > don't think they would display properly on my screen...
   
   I can help for french, icelandic, and german and norwegian (though for the
   two last ones, I guess there are more appropriate persons on this list :). 
   
   > 3) I'd like to implement the existing Cyrillic and EUC-jp character
   > sets, and also some European languages (French and ??) which use the
   > Latin-1 alphabet but might have different collation sequences. Any
   > suggestions for candidates??
   
   They all have, as soon as we take care of accents, which are all put at
   the end with an english system. And of course, they are different for each
   language :)
   
   Patrice
   
   PS : I'm sorry, Tom, I haven't been able to work on the faq for the past
   month :(( because I've been busy in my free time learning norwegian ! I
   will submit something very soon, I promise !
   
   --
   Patrice HÉDÉ --------------------------------- patrice@idf.net -----
                        ... Looking for a job in Iceland or in Norway !
   Ingénieur informaticien   -   Computer engineer   -   Tölvufræðingur
   ----- http://www.idf.net/patrice/ ----------------------------------
   
   
   

3. Re: [PATCHES] Postgres-6.3.2 locale patch

   Oleg Broytmann <phd@comus.ru> — 1998-06-04T06:42:44Z

   Hello!
   
   On Wed, 3 Jun 1998, Thomas G. Lockhart wrote:
   > Hi. I'm looking for non-English-using Postgres hackers to participate in
   > implementing NCHAR() and alternate character sets in Postgres. I think
   > I've worked out how to do the implementation (not the details, just a
   > strategy) so that multiple character sets will be allowed in a single
   > database, additional character sets can be loaded at run-time, and so
   > that everything will behave transparently.
   
      All this sounds nice, but I am afraid the job is not for me. Actually I
   am very new to Postgres and SQL world. I started to learn SQL 3 months ago;
   I started to play with Postgres 2 months ago. I started to hack Potsgres
   sources (about locale) a little more than a month ago.
   
   > 2) Would anyone be interested in helping to define the character sets
   > and helping to test? I don't know the correct collation sequences and
   > don't think they would display properly on my screen...
   
      It would be nice to test it, providing that it wouldn't break existing
   code. Our site is running hundreds CGIs that rely on current locale support
   in Postgres...
   
   Oleg.
   ---- 
     Oleg Broytmann     http://members.tripod.com/~phd2/     phd2@earthling.net
              Programmers don't die, they just GOSUB without RETURN.