RE: String conversions UTF8 <-> ISO-8859-1

["Patrick Dreyer, SY-UCP" <Patrick.Dreyer@swisscom-ucp.com>]

> > Given that utilities like iconv and such exist, I think this is best

> > left as an exercise for the reader.
> 
> If by 'the reader' you mean 'the user', I don't like that.  
> If you mean 'the applicaton', I disagree just as strongly: It 
> just leads to American/English-written applications that 
> don't bother to handle character sets.  Like ldapsearch.  If 
> the library offered character set handling, then applications 
> could easily get character set handling, and they wouldn't 
> all have to reinvent the wheel.  Besides, iconv is a program, 
> not a library.  What applications need is library support for 
> character set handling, not some program they must pipe all 
> I/O through.

Have a look at the Apache Portable Runtime Project
(http://apr.apache.org). There is a project called apr-iconv and is
exactly what you'd like to have: iconv as a library and portable.
In my next slice of free time, I will check that out and have a go for.

Patrick