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MARC-Charset-1.36

Changes for version 1.36 - 2026-10-20

  • Fix utf8_to_marc8() dying when ignore_errors is on
  • When utf8_to_marc8() meets a character with no MARC-8 mapping, it warns and, unless errors are being ignored, returns. However, in ignore_errors mode (either the global setting or the second argument) it died with:
    • Can't call method "is_combining" on an undefined value
  • It now skips the unmappable character in that case, which is what marc8_to_utf8() already does for unmappable MARC-8 characters. (Martin Renvoize)
  • Add table for converting CCCII characters
  • At least one Japanese Z39.50 server in the wild that advertises supplying MARC-8 returns records that include the CCCII representation of the halfwidth katakana middle dot character, which appears to have no EACC equivalent. This patch adds a new conversion table for such characters as they get discovered.
  • Credit to Zac Craven for reporting the issue. (Galen Charlton)
  • Fix crashes and warnings that can occur if the MARC-8 data contains '%'
  • Since (e.g,.) EACC strings can contain the % sign, the MARC-8 string was removed from the sprintf used by the warning message displayed if the codepoint cannot be found. This eliminates the following warnings and crashes:
    • Missing argument in sprintf... Modification of a read-only value attempted...
  • (Galen Charlton)
  • Store the generated character mapping database in a reproducible way
  • The $Storable::canonical setting makes Storable sort hashes by their key when storing them. This makes the generated table reproducible between builds. (Niko Tyni)
  • Document etc/codetables.xml's source and add an opt-in freshness check
  • The optional author check xt/release/codetables-source.t retrieves the codetables XML from the Library of Congress and complains if there's a difference. Currently there is, but the differences amount to a few intentional enhancements. (Martin Renvoize)
  • Assert 5.8.8 as the minimum Perl version
  • Perl 5.8.8 includes a variety of UTF-8 fixes over 5.8.2 and is more easily maintained as the oldest version of Perl still supported by the MARC/Perl modules. (Galen Charlton and Martin Renvoize)
  • Many improvements and updates to project metadata
  • Includes declaring a license file; pointing at GitHub as the current repository, issue tracker and home page; converting the README to POD format and updating it; adding contribution and security issue reporting guidelines as part of MARC/Perl overall. (Martin Renvoize)

Documentation

MARC-Charset
compile_table
compile the LoC mapping table
print_table.pl
print the marc8 conversion table as HTML

Modules

MARC::Charset
convert MARC-8 encoded strings to UTF-8
MARC::Charset::Code
represents a MARC-8/UTF-8 mapping
MARC::Charset::Compiler
compile XML mapping rules from LoC
MARC::Charset::Constants
constants for MARC::Charset
MARC::Charset::Table
character mapping db

Other files