Re: [PHP] Replacing accented characters by non-accented characters

Yannick:

Considering that we just had a flurry of pet-peeves on the list, I 
rant on one of mine.

At 1:25 PM -0500 5/12/08, Yannick Warnier wrote:
>I'm trying to give a universally-manageable directory name to an item
>using a free-text title. I want to avoid every type of accentuated
>character and everything outside of pure ASCII to make it the most
>portable possible.
>Generating a random hash is not acceptable as we want to be the most
>user-friendly possible.

<rant>

As Rocky (the flying squirrel of Bullwinkle fame) once said when a 
gentleman in a black suit identified himself as "Military 
Intelligence" -- "That sounds like a contradiction in terms."

To make something as user-friendly as possible is to accommodate as 
many users as possible, including those who's native language is not 
English -- like 96 percent of the world.

You may want to call whatever you are doing as an 
"universally-manageable directory", but it can't be if it rules out 
the majority of the universe (as we know it).

Why not embrace Unicode and not worry about it? I suggest you read 
"Building Scalable We Sites" by Henderson -- specifically chapter 4, 
which deals with Unicode, Internationalization and Localization.

Looks to me like you're trying to fit a gross into a dozen -- that's 
a lossy process that's probably not going to do what you want.

</rant>

Cheers,

tedd
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