Re: [Gramps-devel] New help with ANSEL encoding

[Anthon P. <ap...@so...>]

While ANSEL as defined in GEDCOM 5.5 can be considered a stable
standard (ANSI Z39.47-1985), it doesn't specify Unicode equivalents.
In contrast, the Library of Congress' MARC spec is a moving target
(superceding ANSEL in many ways), and has in the past, been
subject to change.  And as Benny has observed, their translation
tables are quite large.

How is the current gramps implementation deficient with respect
to GEDCOM 5.5 ANSEL?

Do any other genealogy applications implement MARC?

The MARC committee has also approved two proposals which should
be taken in account:

MARC proposal 2006-09:
"Lossless technique for conversion of Unicode to MARC-8"
http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2006/2006-09.html
- Summary: where Unicode character cannot be converted to
  MARC-8, use: &#xXXXX;

MARC proposal 2006-04:
"Technique for conversion of Unicode to MARC-8"
http://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2006/2006-04.html
- Summary: lossy technique, using a placeholder character
  for character that cannot be mapped to MARC-8

-- Anthon