[ARSCLIST] Diacriticals (was Re: [ARSCLIST] Siegfried Borries and Johannes Schueler/ Schü ler)

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Jacqueline von Arb wrote:

> By the way: Schueler is spelled Schüler in German, but for people with 
> keyboards without the umlaut [¨], it is correct to write Schueler instead 
> of Schüler - just remember to use both Schuler and schueler when you 
> search...

For most diacriticals (umlaut, accent, dieresis, etc.), the keyboard is 
not an issue but character interpretation is. For example, under Windows 
there is an Alt-x-y-z sequence which will generate many diacrits; 
alternatively, one may use the
The problem lies in two areas: character set and typeface. Both lead to 
the same result: characters which look different depending on the 
machine which displays them.

The policy in most fora where the issue comes up often is to eschew 
diacrits in all posts. Umlauts are replaced with the double-vowel 
alternative (oe, ue, and the ambiguous ae) and the French must make do 
without their ensemble fo grave, agu and circumflex accents. (Sacre 
bleu!) Unless one is sure that all the subscribers use ANSI (or ASCII) 
and use appropriate typefaces for mail, that ensures that all readers 
have legible posts.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/