--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "peter_jacobi.rm"
<peter_jacobi@g...> wrote:

> Hi Mark,
>
> --- 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

Not a problem, and again, thanks very much for the help.
Mark