Hi Thomas, All,

> ISO8859_1 DE_DE WIN1252 PXW_INTL WIN1252 PXW_INTL850
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> 'ABC E30' 'ABC E30' 'ABC E30'
> 'ABC E300/800' 'ABC E30 ab V2.2' 'ABC E30 ab V2.2'
> 'ABC E30 ab V2.2' 'ABC E300/800' 'ABC E300/800'
> ==> ' ' > '0'?

This riddle still needs an answer.

In de_DE, conforming to Duden, default Unicode Collation Algorithm,
and most likely some obscure ISO standard, spaces are just ignored
for sorting purposes. Yikes, even most non-alphanumerics are ignored.
(or assigned quaternery (spelling?) differences, but that's very much
the same).

So the values above are compared as if they are written:
ABCE30'
ABCE300800'
ABCE30abV22'

So, whatever this may feel useful to linguists or standards priests,
this is by far the feature of <language>_<country> collation which
irritates most normal user.

In other words, it should better be optional.

Regards,
Peter Jacobi