Re: XML only working in UTF-8 - Re: 8.4 open items list

Chris Browne <cbbrowne(at)acm(dot)org> writes:
> josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com (Josh Berkus) writes:
>> This one is also really bad, but probably only Doc-patchable.
>> However, can SQL/XML really be said to be core functionality if it
>> only works in UTF-8?
>> * BUG #4622: xpath only work in utf-8 server encoding

> Well, much of the definition of XML assumes the use of Unicode, so I
> don't feel entirely badly about there being such a restriction.

> It seems likely to me that opening its use to other encodings has a
> considerable risk of breaking due to a loss of, erm, "closure," in the
> mathematical sense. Or, alternatively, opening a Pandora's Box of
> needing to do translations to prevent mappings from breaking.

Is there a reason not to fix it as suggested at
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2009-02/msg00032.php
ie recode on-the-fly from database encoding to UTF8?

regards, tom lane