Re: [bug-gnu-libiconv] translit_page04

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

> I've been trying to find, why iconv() cannot convert a simple
> UTF-8-encoded string with cyrillic (0x401-0x491) characters from
> "UTF-8" to "ASCII//TRANSLIT" - and it led me to translit_index macro,
> which does most of the transliteration.
> To my horror the range responsible for the characters i'm interested
> in is NOT covered by libiconv. There is supposed to be a table,
> presumably named translit_page04, and it's not there.
> Is there a reason why it isn't there?

Yes. The reason is that libiconv - unlike glibc - supports only locale
independent transliterations. This means, the transliteration table can
only contain transliterations on which everyone will agree.

Now, Cyrillic characters are used by several languages: Russian, Ukrainian,
Serbian, Bulgarian, Byelorussian, Macedonian. I believe that the
pronounciation of some of the letters are different in these languages,
and therefore the transliteration (even to English orthography) would
be different.

So, the fix for you is to use a glibc system. glibc has locale dependent
transliterations.

Bruno