11th INIS/ETDE Joint TechnicalCommittee Meeting

Agenda Item 2.4

Special Characters

Debbie Cutler, ETDE OA

6-8 November 2007

Vienna, Austria

11th JTC IAEA/INIS

Agenda Item 2.4

Current special characters extend ASCII, but are limited:

#, _, and “ used as signal characters

Superscripts and subscripts

Greek letters and some mathematical symbols

Transliteration tables, too, plus recent use of @

Current systems for input, output, display and searching handle these for both INIS and ETDE

11th JTC IAEA/INIS

Agenda Item 2.4 (cont.)

ISO 2709 exchange format is main limiting factor

XML offers greater possibilities for character sets

Previous meetings suggested a subgroup be established to discuss possibilities, once XML was closer to implementation

Unicode, UTF-8, MathML (definitions in papers) – views on what is realistic?

11th JTC IAEA/INIS

Agenda Item 2.4 (cont.)

Aspects/implications that need to be considered:

Input (input tool capability, inputter’s capability, country-specific input tools, data from publishers)

Data transfer and processing

Output

Displaying in products

Searching in products

Storing

11th JTC IAEA/INIS

Agenda Item 2.4 (cont.)Discussion/Questions

What are members’ views/experiences regarding these issues and what is realistically achievable for special characters within INIS/ETDE systems?

How should INIS and ETDE proceed with regard to addressing next steps for an enhanced set of special characters?