p_print_03: output contains U+nnnn characters Aleph fails to convert to MARC8

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 18.01

Description:
When we export records from our database and convert them to MARC8, the result sometimes contains Unicode codes that Aleph was unable to convert to MARC8. Example:

=670 \\$aGlossaire de l'?conomie de l'OCDE angl.-fran?., 2006 [en ligne via Ariane].$bEconomist\U+2026\ Business economist = ?conomiste d'entreprise.

The U+2026 here is the Unicode code for an HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS, which does not exist in MARC8.

In order to eliminate those unreadable codes from our MARC8 exports, I want to add an home made transliteration using the following lines in the marc8_lat_to_unicode table:

00AB 22 LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
00BB 22 RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
2013 2D EN DASH
2019 27 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
2026 2E2E2E HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS

So:

Unicode LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK would be converted to a MARC8 QUOTATION MARK
Unicode RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK would be converted to a MARC8 QUOTATION MARK
Unicode EN DASH would be converted to MARC8 HYPHEN-MINUS
Unicode RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK would be converted to a MARC8 APOSTROPHE
Unicode HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS would be converted to three MARC8 PERIOD

It would solve our Exportation problem as it would produce MARC8 files without U+ codes.

Now, my question: Could it be a problem if we want to Import records from a MARC8 encoded file in Aleph?

My guess is no, since the MARC8 codes I used for the transliteration are all BASIC LATIN, the same as ASCII codes in the range 0x00-0x7F, which should just not be touched by the conversion algorithm. I just wanted a confirmation to that guess.

Resolution:
The marc8_lat_to_unicode file which Ex Libris distributes has single-unicode-character ("precomposed") representations for characters which appear in the Arial Unicode MS font (-- which is the de-facto standard for the display of diacritics).

[From site:]

My concern was not with the display of this character in Aleph because, as I said, there's no problem with that. It was with the modification I made in the marc8_lat_to_unicode table. The line added corrected the problem upon exportation, the exported file does not contain U+2026 anymore, but instead it contains the 3 dots. But I was worried that it would also do the reverse job: converting 3 dots in a single horizontal ellipsis upon importation of MARC8 data into Aleph.

Yesterday afternoon, I gave it a try using p_manage_22. I tested conversion of a MARC8 file containing 3 dots to Unicode. The result (thankfully!) is what I expected: the 3 dots remained 3 dots and it's exactly what I wanted it to do.

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013