Re: Questions about pg_enable_utf8

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 09:25:17PM -0000, Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:
> 
> > I think the "proper" approach would be to decode using the
> > client_encoding on read from the db on text columns and likewise
> > encode to the client encoding on write back to the db.  But, perhaps
> > there is a reason that approach was not taken.
> 
> I don't honestly remember why things are like they are at the moment,
> but we certainly may be doing the things the wrong way. :) Maybe you can
> expand the above paragraph into a more formal set of proposed rules.
> When I get some time, I'll devote some cycles to this.

Ok, how formal would you need?

I guess my proposal would be to perhaps have a flag that when set
causes DBD::Pg to read the client_encoding after making a connection.
Then use that encoding with Encode::encode() and Encode::decode() when
moving data between Perl and Pg.

The implementation details are a bit more sketchy. ;)

For one thing, I'm not sure if the client_encoding returned from Pg
would match with the encoding names used by Perl.

Then, would also need to know what data should and should not be
decoded and encoded.  I guess everything except binary (and numeric?)
column data.

But, the current system seems to work fine -- someone can simply use
utf8 client encoding and set pg_enable_utf8 (regardless of their
database's encoding).  And it's unlikely that Perl's internal
representation of character data will change from utf8 anytime soon
so just forcing the utf8 flag is fine.


-- 
Bill Moseley
[email protected]
Sent from my iMutt