36. A method, comprising: receiving a first character set having a plurality of characters represented according to a first representation format; receiving an ordering of the plurality of characters; receiving characteristic information describing characteristics of characters or classes of characters; determining a second representation for each of the plurality of characters, each second representation according to a second representation format having an equality part and a differentiator part, wherein the equality part indicates a membership within a class of characters and a sort priority of the class of characters, and the differentiator part represents a particular character of the class of characters indicated by the equality part, and wherein a combination of the equality part and the differentiator part provides a complete representation of the string, the second representations of the plurality of characters based on the ordering and the characteristic information, and comprising a variable number of bits per character; generating a second character set according to the second representation format based at least in part on the second representations of the plurality of characters, wherein the second character set is configured to allow sorting of text strings generated from the second character set, the sorting based on the equality parts of characters of the text strings; and displaying a text string of the second representation format by generating displayable representations of a respective text string from the combination of the equality part and the differentiator part.
36. A method, comprising: receiving a first character set having a plurality of characters represented according to a first representation format; receiving an ordering of the plurality of characters; receiving characteristic information describing characteristics of characters or classes of characters; determining a second representation for each of the plurality of characters, each second representation according to a second representation format having an equality part and a differentiator part, wherein the equality part indicates a membership within a class of characters and a sort priority of the class of characters, and the differentiator part represents a particular character of the class of characters indicated by the equality part, and wherein a combination of the equality part and the differentiator part provides a complete representation of the string, the second representations of the plurality of characters based on the ordering and the characteristic information, and comprising a variable number of bits per character; generating a second character set according to the second representation format based at least in part on the second representations of the plurality of characters, wherein the second character set is configured to allow sorting of text strings generated from the second character set, the sorting based on the equality parts of characters of the text strings; and displaying a text string of the second representation format by generating displayable representations of a respective text string from the combination of the equality part and the differentiator part. 37. The method of claim 36 , wherein said second text string comprises a string format having a first string part and a second string part, the first string part comprising the first parts of each of the characters of the string, and the second string part comprising the second parts of each of the characters of the string, wherein the equality string part comprises a contiguous block of memory storing the equality parts of each of the characters of the string, and wherein the differentiator string part comprises a contiguous block of memory storing the differentiator parts of each of the characters of the string.