Recode

Recode is a handy tool that helps you convert files between different character sets and uses. Sometimes, when it can't find an exact match for a character, it either removes the tricky ones or finds similar ones that work. This makes it super useful for anyone dealing with text data!

Understanding Character Sets

So, what's a charset? It's a term we can use to describe either a specific character set or how we use one. Recode recognizes and can produce about 150 different charsets. Because it can switch from one charset to nearly any other, you get thousands of conversion options. That's pretty cool!

Special Attention to French Diacritics

This program is especially good at handling those little accents you see in French writing. While this focus might be more about history than anything else, it doesn't make the tool less useful or flexible for other languages.

Installing Recode Made Easy

If you're looking to install Recode, here are some tips that could help you out on different systems. You might need to temporarily set some environment variables while running .\/configure. The file named INSTALL has more details if you need them.

Compilation Tips

If you're using certain C compilers (like Apollo's), they can struggle with compiling merged.c. If you run into this problem, try avoiding compiler optimization by using:

CFLAGS= .\/configure

If you're feeling adventurous and want to push your C optimizer on merged.c for slightly faster code, give this a shot:

CPPFLAGS=-DINLINE_HARDER .\/configure

Tweaks for Smaller Systems

If you're working with 80286-based systems, some compilers might mess up the code when optimizing for small models. To fix this, run:

CFLAGS=-Ml LDFLAGS=-Ml .\/configure

Edit Configuration Files if Needed

If your system has issues with pipe or popen, just before running make, go into config.h and make sure HAVE_PIPE is not defined.

What's New in Version 3.7 Beta 2?

• The name changed from 'Free recode' to just 'Recode'.


• The libiconv library is no longer part of the package.


• A bug where some characters would disappear when recoding large files has been fixed.


• The installation process now uses Python.


• 'make check' lets you limit tests with the LIMIT option.


• PO files have been updated from the Translation Project.