> And U+00DF for German has the uppercase "SS", > but "SS" does not generally lowercase to U+00DF (unless you do > context analysis on the data). > Which is especially unreliable now that the German High Court has approved > the spelling reform. Ar 08:44 -0700 1998-07-17, scríobh Berthold Frommann: > the very fact that "sharp s" has the uppercase "SS" won't change at all. There is indeed a change (though a minor one), in the uppercasing rules for Sharp-S: - According to the old rules, it was possible to uppercase Sharp-S giving "SZ" rather than the common "SS", to avoid ambiguities. The only known case where this rule applied, at all, was "Masse" (= mass, bulk) vs. "Maße" (= measurements). - In contrast, the new rule, §25E3, allows only "SS", cf. (in German). Am 1998-7-17 um 12:25 hat Michael Everson geschrieben: > No, but context analysis has to be based on something. You can't use > existing spellcheck dictionaries etc. because the rules have all changed. Ah, all of the rules haven't changed -- though it is correct that one rule governing the Sharp-S vs. Double-S has been dropped resulting in more instances of Double-S than before. However, capitalizing is an irreversible process; trying to lower-case capitalized German text is a rather ambitious endeaveour which almost certainly is bound to failure. I would recommend to keep the original mixed-case version, wherever possible. Generating the correct mixed-case spelling from a capitalized version involves deep linguistic analysis, and even knowledge of the real world. Notorious Examples where real-world knowledge is needed: ER HAT IN MOSKAU LIEBE GENOSSEN. Er hat in Moskau liebe Genossen. = At Moskow, he has got dear comrades. Er hat in Moskau Liebe genossen. = At Moskow, he has enjoyed love. BRIGITTE BARDOT MIT IHREN BEACHTLICHEN KÖRPERMASSEN B.B. mit ... Körpermaßen = B.B., and her remarkable physical measurements B.B. mit ... Körpermassen = B.B., and her considerable bodyly masses (i.e. corpulence) Examples for the linguistic difficulties that even the newest German spell- checking software usually does not get right (from: "Methode Simsalabim", and "Hilflose Helferlein", both by Dieter E. Zimmer, , ): im Besonderen wurde ..., = in particular im besonderen Falle wurde ... = in that particular case im Folgenden ... = in the sequel im folgenden Absatz ... = in the next paragraph Best wishes, Otto Stolz