[Foundation-l] Automatic username transliteration for SUL

[Gerard Meijssen]

Neil Harris schreef:
> James Hare wrote:
>   
>> I don't know if IPA would work... I mean for all we know, "Bob" could have
>> some random pronounciation of "ko-ho-ba-fay-jo-muh". When it comes to
>> storing it in the database, I agree it should be some uniform script, like a
>> Federation Standard of sorts...
>>
>>   
>>     
>
> Even "ko-ho-ba-fay-jo-muh" is better than ????????
>
> Of course, we could always take the approach of putting them in IPA, 
> thus annoying everyone equally.
>
> -- Neil
Hoi.
When you get ?????? it makes sense to install more fonts. The use of IPA 
is problematic because it is often done incorrectly and most people have 
not had training to do IPA correctly. It takes a lot of training to do 
this correctly. My name for instance is notoriously difficult to 
pronounce for people who are not Dutch while even a name like "Bob" 
should be written in many ways when you consider in how many ways it is 
pronounced.

When IPA is used correctly, you will get characters that people will not 
be able to read and consequently your problem is not different from the 
one you tried to solve.

Thanks,
    GerardM