HP-UX 11.0 - 11i Internationalization Features White Paper

Encoding Characters

Converting Between Encodings

Chapter 2

Mainframe iconv Converters for Japanese characters [11.0 patch, 11i v1 patch,

11i v2]

Mainframe iconv converters between ShiftJIS/eucJP/UCS2 and NEC-JIPS/Hitachi-KEIS/Fujitsu-JEF,

were introduced at HP-UX 11i v1.0. This release includes several fixes of mapping errors for JIS standard

characters.

This release of mainframe iconv conversion tables includes numerous fixes for mapping errors for JIS

standard characters in the basic part of those mainframe codesets. The detailed changes are described in

MFConvChanges.jips, MFConvChanges.keis and MFConvChanges.jef in the /usr/share/doc directory.

In addition, this release of mainframe iconv conversion methods includes a fix to handle an incomplete shift

sequence at the end of an input buffer.

Impact to the Customer

If the customer has already used the HP-UX 11i v1 version of mainframe iconv converters and then uses this

version, the results will be different because of fixes in the mappings for JIS standard characters. It is

recommended that the previously installed tables be saved and renamed prior to installation of this release.

Persistent data can then be converted back using the old table and then reconverted using the new tables to

the correct representation.

If the last character in the input buffer could be a valid character OR an incomplete shift sequence,

iconv(3C) returns EINVAL. If that character is the final one of the input file, iconv(3C) never returns

successfully without appending other dummy data like NULL to that character. That character is 0x1a for

jipsj, 0x3f for jipsec/jipsek and 0xa for keis7c/keis7k/keis8c/keis8k which could be a control

character OR an incomplete shift sequence.

Compatibility

No compatibility problems are anticipated. However, if compatibility concerns arise with regard to persistent

data stored on an HP-UX system, it is recommended that the previously installed tables be saved and

renamed prior to installation of this release. Persistent data can then be converted back using this old table

and then reconverted to the correct representation using the new tables.

Performance

No performance issues.

Documentation

• Japanese System Environment User's Manual (in Japanese language)

• iconv(3C) manpage

Future Plans

The mainframe iconv converters will track future changes in Unicode standard support in HP-UX.