Heiner Eichmann's GEDCOM 5.5 Sample Page: Open Questions
All previously open questions are now answered since the
ANSEL (ANSI Z39.47-1993)
specification is availible in the internet.
ANSEL Questions:
Can non-spacing characters be cascaded? Example: Unicode code point 01D5 is
called "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON". Is it E8 E5 55
or does it not exist in ANSEL?
Answer: In a character string, these nonspacing characters
shall precede the character that they modify. When
a character requires multiple character modifiers,
they are to be entered in the order in which they
appear, reading left to right or top to bottom.
Can non-spacing characters be followed by non-latin characters?
Example: 01E2 is called "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER AE WITH MACRON". Is it
E5 A5 or does in not exist in ANSEL?
Answer: In Chapter 6 the ANSEL code range from A0 to C6 is called
"ANSEL spacing graphic characters". They are denominated as "characters" and therefore
the answer to the question above is "yes".
Can non-spacing characters be followed by a space?
Example: The sentence "some characters can carry a ^" can be converted
to ANSEL ("^" is 5E). What about the ´ (acute) in "some characters can
carry a ´"?
Is it E2 20 or does in not exist in ANSEL?
Answer: This question is not treated in the ANSEL specification. The appendix (table B2) gives a list of
all special characters which contains f.e. an alif but not an acute. Therefore the sentence above
can probably not be coded in ANSEL.
Read an answer from Blair Murri
If you want to comment it:
h.eichmann@gmx.de
Last modification: 2001-03-19