Re: [tlug] [Fwd: Search MySQL for Japanese Names]

[Patrick Bernier <pat+tlug@example.com>]

Quoting Janos Gyerik:
> And, use full-width katakana (zenkaku), never ever ever ever half
> width! (If you look at Japanese user-interfaces, they use full-width
> most of the time if not always, so this approach is quite normal.)

Hmmm, I've seen a /lot/ of forms online that actually *require* you to
type your furigana in half-width katakana. Especially on mobile phone
sites. A bad idea, I think, but still unfortunately common.

Dave, better accept everything and normalize yourself to whatever form you
prefer. I like decomposed zenkaku katakana, some people prefer hankaku.

And please make sure you have a clear way of dealing with foreign names,
too. We've all wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what the "Kanji"
field would accept for our names (sometimes alphabet, sometimes zenkaku
alphabet, sometimes zenkaku katakana...) 

Also, in the unlikely event that you need to generate a romanized version
from the kana... I remember looking for a function to do that in the past
and not finding one, so I rolled my own (straight in MySQL so it could be
called by triggers). Unless somebody here has a pointer to an existing
function to do the same, I could make mine available.

-- 
()  Patrick (L.) Bernier <pat@example.com>
()  http://www.TZoNE.ORG/~pat/
()  GPG B070 BBB6 188D EB1E 353A 90E4 96FF D8EB 1ADC BE03
()  "Words have meaning, and names have power." -- Lorien