[DOCS] Encoding and multibye support

[Iain]

(B
(B
(B
(BHi All,
(B 
(BI recently had a sight problem with a 
(Bdevelopment database because I used the default encoding of SQL_ASCII. When I 
(Btried to load the database into a EUC_JP database of course there were some 
(Bproblems with invlaid EUC_JP characters. Fortunately they were easy to find and 
(Bfix.
(B 
(BAnyway, my search on "encoding" or 
(B"multibyte" showed up nothing in the 7.4 documentation. Eventually I found 
(Ba page written by Tatsuo Ishii in the 7.2 documentation.
(B 
(BI think that it's an important area, and 
(Bis a potential trap for new players so I'd like to see the documentation 
(Bupdated. 
(B 
(BThe following came out of a discussion 
(Bwith Tom Lane. I submitted it as comment in the interactive documentation. I 
(Bthink it would be a good idea to check the details and update the 
(Bdoc:
(B--
(BThe default encoding SQL_ASCII effectively 
(Bdisables any encoding conversion. This means that your db will accept any kind 
(Bof data. It's a potential problem as you may end up wth different kinds of 
(Bencoding being used in both your data and metadata.
(B 
(BIt would seem that unless you specifically 
(Brequire to store data in various encodings then you should select a 
(Bspecific encoding when creating a new database. Use initdb -E to set the 
(Bdefault for all new DBs. This can be overridden when using creating a new 
(BDB
(B--
(B 
(BAlso, the documentation for installation 
(B(chapter 14), creating database clusters (16.2) and creating databases 
(B(18.2) doesn't mention encoding at all. Maybe they should. Also 16.2 
(Bshould link to the documention for initdb (Server Applications, section 
(BIII). I think that wuld be a good idea.
(B 
(Bregards
(BIain

Re: [DOCS] Encoding and multibye support

[Iain]

(B
(B
(BActually I should say that I eventually 
(Bfound the section in chapter 20 (localization) of the 7.4 docs, but I'd like to 
(Bsee this page being linked to from the areas I mentioned, and maybe making it 
(Beasier to find by searching on words like "encode" "encoding" etc.
(B 
(BRegards
(BIain