This class adds support for conversion between different character
sets. The conversion between EBCDIC-1047 and Latin-1/UTF-8 is always
available. If the iconv library is installed, then all conversions
of the iconv library can be used, too.
Use of iconv functions is not as standardized as wanted.
Challenges found so far:
- On some functions, the iconv*() functions are part of the C library. On other systems, a separate library must be linked in.
- There are systems with multiple, incompatible implementations of iconv functionality.
- Not each system provides an implementation.
- Mapping of EBCDIC-1047 to ASCII/Latin-1/UTF-8 and vice versa is done differently on different platforms.
- Each implementation supports different mappings.
As result, the implementation provides a thin wrapper around the
iconv functionality, including a fixed conversion for EBCDIC-1047.