>Why is this so complicated?

It is converting image files to texts
that is complicated - so far Icelandic
characters haven't caused insurmountable
difficulties.

>Why not just use dh for the "th" in English "that"
>th for the "th" in English "think"
>ae for the vowel
>* for umlauts (2 dots over a letter)

Well, I think the short answer is "Yuck!" :)

While using ASCII to represent alphabets not
contained in it can be alright for short
quotes in a context where people generally
are not interested in bothering with non-ASCII
characters it would be ridiculous to employ
in a whole language course or dictionary:)

>Here is the introduction to the
>Hippocrene Icelandic dictionary:

I spot five mistakes in your typing.

>upplu'singar

uppl'ysingar

>itlu

litlu

>Kn

kyn

>eri

eru

>einugis

einungis


Regards,
Haukur