Re: Unicode and PGAccess

Frank,

> I'm new here so please let me know if this is not on topic or I do
> anything
> else wrong.

There is no "off topic" for the Novice list, unless you start talking
about Oracle. ;-)

> On my old system I used to use PGAccess to view data on a remote
> system. Now
> I get the error:
> Conversion from UNICODE and SQL_ASCII is not supported.
>
> I have just loaded a 7.3 version of SuSE Linux (2.4.10 kernel) to
> replace my
> 7.2 system. I am running KDE 2.2.2.

This is a universal problem with those platforms. Here's the issue in
a nutshell:

1. KDE 2.2.x comes with new Tcl/tk libraries that are Unicode-native,
to support more languages.
2. PGAccess, which has not been maintained for a year, was written with
older libraries that are ASCII only. As a result, no
character-conversion code was included in PGAccess
3. Thus, when you open PGAccess under KDE 2.2, and try to pull data
from a PostgreSQL database, PGAccess tries to pull it as Unicode and
will not accept ASCII.
(don't ask me for techincal details. That's as much as I know)

> A search of the docs shows how to set the encoding in the database,
> but I can
> find no mention of setting it on the client side. If there is such a
> doc,
> please point me to it.

These are your two choices:
1. Re-compile Postges in Multibyte Encoding form. This is letting the
tail wag the dog, but will solve the problem (though it may create
others).
2. Use your vast knowledge of Tcl to fix PGAccess so that it converts
btw. Unicode and ACSII.

Personally, I'd really love to see option 2. Constantin and several
others put a lot of work into PGAccess despite the almost total lack
of interest from the community in the last couple of years. Having
someone who could resurrect and upgrade the product would be great.

> I don't
> have the source to PGAccess so if this is what I must do, please
> point me to
> where the source may be obtained.

http://www.flex.ro/pgaccess/

Jeez. There's no link to PGAccess from anywhere on the PostgreSQL home
page. No wonder nobody is maintaining it!

-Josh