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

[黒鉄章 <akira@example.com>]

> 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.

I'm fairly certain this is a throwback to financial systems using the
7-bit half-width katakana back in the day, and software people in
banks being managed by risk-adverse (and hence change-adverse) non-IT
people ever since.

> 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...)

I always convert half-width to full-width on user input. I go with
(zen-kaku) katakana because you know, those crazy foreigners ;). There
a just few more katakana characters than hiragana, for foreign sounds,
so you can go can always go katakana -> hiragana, but not vice versa.
Maybe someone out there wants to use the 'v-' consonant sound instead
of the 'b-' or 'w-'.

> 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.

I can confirm there is no such function in PHP; I think we all end up
making our own. I haven't got mine to hand, sorry.

Cheers,

Akira