ICONV - Charset Conversion Library. Version 1.0
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This distribution contains the library (libiconv.a and .so) for
conversion between various charsets (character encoding schemes)
and the command line utility (iconv).
Syntax of the library functions (iconv_open, iconv, iconv_close)
and the utility is described in the man pages.
Features of the library:
- small size: the actual conversion methods are located
in dynamically loaded shared modules, representing
either a character encoding scheme (CES), or a coded
character set (CCS);
- open module API: adding new modules (both CESs and
CCSs) is easy. Although the API has not been documented,
it is rather simple to be figured out from the sources;
- BSD-style copyright;
- POSIX compliance of iconv_open, iconv and iconv_close
functions;
- support for aliases for charset names via UNIX symbolic
links;
- ISO/IEC 10646 conformance of the internal representation
of characters; conversion is always done in two steps:
(1) a sequence of zero or more bytes from input buffer
coded in the source charset is converted to exactly one
valid UCS-4 character and (2) the UCS-4 character is
converted to a sequence of zero or more bytes in
the target charset to the output buffer;
- standard sources of CCS tables: all C source files of
the tables have been generated by a Perl script from
the Unicode and RFC1345 charset mapping tables before
being included to the package.
Konstantin Chuguev
<Konstantin.Chuguev@dante.org.uk>
September 2000.
245060e5a9