No Unicode support

[Thomas Dukleth-2]

REPOSTED to correct my previous omission of a subject header:


I was discussing Zebra with Frédéric DEMIANS today when he raised the
issue of Zebra's lack of indexing support for Unicode.  The message which
he links shows that indexing support is limited to 256 characters which
would be a serious problem for supporting many languages in Koha and seems
to require significant funding to remedy.

This issue may not trouble most libraries currently using Koha but will
certainly prevent adoption until it is corrected at some libraries which I
had thought would be well suited for Koha 3.0.


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Zebra limitation
From:    Frédéric DEMIANS <f.demians [AT] tamil.fr>
Date:    Tue, July 17, 2007 8:35 pm
To:      koha [AT] agogme.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I told you, it appears that, even if koha 3 is Unicode, Zebra is not,so
Koha is not:

http://lists.indexdata.dk/pipermail/zebralist/2007-May/001522.html

--
Frédéric DEMIANS
http://www.tamil.fr/u/fdemians.html


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
212-674-3783
http://www.agogme.com



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[Mike Taylor-10]

Correct.  We are as keen to fix this as you are, and would very much
appreciate any funding you can scare up from your customers.

Thomas Dukleth writes:
 > REPOSTED to correct my previous omission of a subject header:
 >
 >
 > I was discussing Zebra with Frédéric DEMIANS today when he raised the
 > issue of Zebra's lack of indexing support for Unicode.  The message which
 > he links shows that indexing support is limited to 256 characters which
 > would be a serious problem for supporting many languages in Koha and seems
 > to require significant funding to remedy.
 >
 > This issue may not trouble most libraries currently using Koha but will
 > certainly prevent adoption until it is corrected at some libraries which I
 > had thought would be well suited for Koha 3.0.
 >
 >
 > ---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
 > Subject: Zebra limitation
 > From:    Frédéric DEMIANS <f.demians [AT] tamil.fr>
 > Date:    Tue, July 17, 2007 8:35 pm
 > To:      koha [AT] agogme.com
 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > As I told you, it appears that, even if koha 3 is Unicode, Zebra is not,so
 > Koha is not:
 >
 > http://lists.indexdata.dk/pipermail/zebralist/2007-May/001522.html
 >
 > --
 > Frédéric DEMIANS
 > http://www.tamil.fr/u/fdemians.html
 >
 >
 > Thomas Dukleth
 > Agogme
 > 109 E 9th Street, 3D
 > New York, NY  10003
 > USA
 > 212-674-3783
 > http://www.agogme.com
 >
 >
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > Koha-zebra mailing list
 > Koha-zebra@...
 > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-zebra


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[MJ Ray-2]

Mike Taylor <mike@...> wrote:
> Correct.  We are as keen to fix this as you are, and would very much
> appreciate any funding you can scare up from your customers.

>  > http://lists.indexdata.dk/pipermail/zebralist/2007-May/001522.html

What is the target amount?  Would each interested customer conclude a
contract with indexdata or should it be gathered under one company?
Can it be structred as payment-on-delivery or payment-per-milestone?

Koha people - semi-related, when will kohala be able to be a
gathering-place for funding?  Should we apply to associate with
Software in the Public Interest, Inc, or similar, even if only for
development topics?

Thanks,
--
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Experienced webmaster-developers for hire http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
Also: statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder, workers co-op.
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[Thomas Dukleth-2]

Reply inline:

On Wed, July 18, 2007 3:31 pm, MJ Ray wrote:
> Mike Taylor <mike@...> wrote:
>> Correct.  We are as keen to fix this as you are, and would very much
>> appreciate any funding you can scare up from your customers.
>
>>  > http://lists.indexdata.dk/pipermail/zebralist/2007-May/001522.html
>

In case there is any lack of clarity, this issue is about indexing and
related Unicode support in Zebra.  Unicode data storage and record display
in Koha works and is unaffected by this problem.  Indexing romanised
fields is sufficient for some libraries to work around this problem but
unacceptable to others.

I answer below based on information which I was obtaining directly from
Index Data prior to MJ Ray's message to which I am now replying.  I
suggested to Mike Taylor later that he should try to answer on the
koha-zebra list and perhaps he would have but he was leaving on holiday.

I continue from my off-list message encouraging interested parties to
pursue this matter.

> What is the target amount?

A large sum would be required, except that only US$ 11,000 remains
unfunded at this time.

Mike Taylor informed me last week that one significant source of funding
was nearing the end of a funding cycle so that a commitment of funding
within the next week or so would be helpful for starting work now as
opposed to some unspecified later time.  The work required is substantial
and might take a little under six months.

I interpreted a later message from David Dorman to imply that work was
liable to start soon but that a commitment for any funding would be
appreciated.  I understood that a commitment for any amount would be
helpful.

> Would each interested customer conclude a
> contract with indexdata or should it be gathered under one company?

I suspect that Index Data is indifferent to the source of commitments as
long as they can expect that the commitments will be honoured.  Any party
may have some preferences for how to manage the relationship but those are
likely independent of the actual goal.

> Can it be structred as payment-on-delivery or payment-per-milestone?
>

Mike Taylor informed me that Index Data is seeking commitments of funding
while payment could be made at a later date, even some period after
completion of the work.  I communicated with him about the prospect of
having funds in 6 to 9 months.  Everyone prefers payment in advance but
that is not necessary in this case.

> Koha people - semi-related, when will kohala be able to be a
> gathering-place for funding?

Someone who knows about Kohala should answer.  Does anyone from France
have a response?

> Should we apply to associate with
> Software in the Public Interest, Inc, or similar, even if only for
> development topics?
>

I suggest that Koha should have an independent foundation or set of
associated foundations with a parent foundation to promote Koha, assist
with funding, etc.  There is no reason such foundations could not
associate themselves with other organisations such as SPI but I think that
independence is important so that the Koha community is able to put the
interests of Koha first.  However, that topic should be moved to the
koha-devel list.

[..]


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
212-674-3783
http://www.agogme.com




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