In the context of another project I'm working on (personal project, not for Logos; apart from that I'm not ready to announce anything) I wanted to be able to convert Greek Beta Code text into Greek unicode that utilizes the proper polytonic characters. You know, like this:

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

So I decided to (finally) roll my own Beta Code to Unicode converter. When I got the component written, it was so cool I figured I had to write a seperate ASP page interface so other folks could use it if they wanted to. There are other converters out there, but they don't interpret Beta Code the way I like to. So this has a few quirks that are all my own, though my quirks tend to get closer to the spec instead of migrate away from it (apart from the 'J' as final sigma). Don't worry, these are all documented on the page.

You'll get three things returned to you:

• UTF8 string in the specified font.
• The text you supplied to the tool.
• Hexadecimal character entities. These can be pasted straight into the source of HTML pages in non-UTF8 contexts (e.g., many third party plain-text editors like TextPad).

Anyway, it's online, fully documented, and ready to rock & roll. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Update: Zack Hubert, fellow Greek text munger of sorts and head dude of the world-famous zhubert.com graces ricoblog with his presence and asks a question 'bout the converter:

Zack: What is your converter written in?
Rico: Javascript running on IIS. It's nothing super complex or tolerant; as I said I wrote it primarily for my own purposes (which, if I'm able to keep on track, I'll blog about in a few weeks).

Zack mentions his approach. Mine is much less refined. Basically, I've got an XML file with mappings from beta code to UTF8 (just the hex numbers — that gives me some freedom on what I actually can spit back to the user). Rather than parse the string from the back and build it as I go, I simply search and replace the string based on the XML mappings. But there's a catch — I always match the longest possible beta code substring first, no matter where it occurs in the string. So, I match '*A(/' before I match 'A(/' or 'A'.  The letters in my mapped hex numbers are lower-case, so I don't have to worry about clobbering mappings I've already slapped in.

Hey, I said it was less refined. I would write it a little differently if I had different constraints (e.g., two-way conversion, multiple inbound fonts), but it works for me. Hey, quit laughin' out there!

Zack — you're in Seattle? If you're ever up north, you should drop me an email and stop by Bellingham on your way to/from wherever. Coffee or whatever is on me.

Update II: James Tauber joins the Greek-geek party with a comment, pointing us to his Python script that does Beta Code to Unicode conversion. His approach is more forgiving than mine, he allows you to do stuff like '*(/A' or '*A(/' and get the same UTF8 bits on the backside. I really ougtha learn me some Python some day (I can follow the code, but I couldn't write it) but I've been far too corrupted by the sheer lovin' messiness of Perl.

BTW, same offer to you James — if you're ever 'up north', let me know you're in the area. Though it's a bit more of a trip for you than it is for Zack.