Been using marc.pm for some time to do a "bunch-o-stuff," but haven't
had to deal with unicode problems until now. Couple of basic questions.
1. If I use the "$record->encoding()" call, is it simply checking for
the "a" in leader position 9? That is, it is not doing anything more
complicated, like checking the actual data.
(Reason for the question, if leader position 9 is wrong, and encoding
depends on it, then encoding will not tell me anything more than marc.pm
thinks that it is unicode.)
2. If I want to update a record that is unicode do I have to make sure
any text string that I send in say, append_fields(... has been encoded
as utf8, i.e., use some perl function to ensure that the string(s) are
utf8? Alternatively, does marc.pm handle that automatically when it
thinks it has a utf8 record?
(This problem comes from working with a set of records. When I update
those that have leader byte 9 set to "a," and I try to do something with
the updated record, e.g., read it, I crash with the "does not map to
..." message. That leads me to assume that either I need to do
something with the stuff I am adding to make it utf8 or I have records
that say they are utf8 and are not. Running some of the records through
a little check program I have, usually finds a problem with the record
length when it hits these records that were changed.)
--
Gene Damon
Director of Library Automation &
Learning Resources
Virginia Community College System
(804) 819-4981 (voice)
(804) 819-4773 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Address:
James Monroe Bldg.
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Richmond, VA 23219
http://library.vccs.edu/reference
