--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "mbellisle_retire" wrote:
> Well I suppose my vision is still foggy.

Hard to say whether your vision is foggy or my message
is foggy. Not heard the first time that I express myself
unnecessarily complex.

> If I understand you correctly, your
> saying even though the db doesn't spec a char set, I should choose
> UNICODE, just to ensure some level of correct translation of the
> characters, if I come across any others?

I try to give an 'Executive Summary' advice:

1. If you already have an database containing non-ASCII
characters but no character set declared for the columns
(charset NONE), and these character are encoded matching
your computer's default (CP1252 for 'western' Microsoft OSes):

=> connect always with charset NONE.
Let the App figure out what the characters are. This is
just as reading flat files from disk, they also have no
embedded idea of charsets.

2. If you start fresh, and your program doesn't use UNICODE
internally:

=> set the default charset of the database matching
your system's default charset and always connect with the
same charset to the database. Some tools (and the NT Console
Window) must be additionally told to use this same charset
to display the non-ASCII characters

3. If you start fresh, and your program uses UNICODE internally,
but your character set needs in the database can be covered
by your system default charset:

=> set the default charset of the database matching
your system's default charset and connect with the UNICODE_FSS
charset to the database. Some tools (and the NT Console
Window) must be additionally told to use UNICODE_FSS
to display the non-ASCII characters.

4. If you start fresh, and your program uses UNICODE internally,
and your character set needs in the database cannot be covered
by your system default charset:

=> set the default charset of the database to UNICODE_FSS
and connect with the UNICODE_FSS charset to the database.
Some tools (and the NT Console Window) must be additionally
told to use UNICODE_FSS to display the non-ASCII characters.

OOops. Got rather along again...

Sorry,
Peter