Re: Usage of Fonts in XML

[Bob DuCharme <bob@udico.com>]

>Please check out the attachments. I've included an Excel file and a couple
of fonts.
>Please install the fonts to view the Excel file. These are fonts with
diacritical marks.

I personally don't open binary files from strangers that may contain
built-in macros, especially Excel and Word files, which are very popular for
spreading viruses. Not that you would be trying to spread a virus, but you
never know how good someone else's virus-checking infrastructure is.

>How could I convert the Excel data into XML?

If you save as a comma- or tab-delimited file, a simple script in Perl,
Python, or any of several other languages can wrap each data value in tags,
wrap each row in a container tag, and wrap the whole thing in a document
element container tag.

>When I do a conversion, quite a bit of the characters are distorted.

One of the "Save As" options in Excel is "Unicode Text," which I believe in
pre-W2000 MS products always means UCS-2 Unicode. After a quick test, the
characters seem to be delimited by tabs, so the script mentioned above could
use those to figure out where the elements and attributes are. If the tool
for the conversion can be told that it's reading UCS-2 text, it can probably
be told to write the output in whatever encoding is most convenient for you.

Bob DuCharme            www.snee.com/bob             <bob@
snee.com>      see http://www.snee.com/bob/xsltquickly for
info on new book "XSLT Quickly" from Manning Publications.