search on accents over all possible matches

Hello,

I'm developing a search tool with php against a posgresql database.
As the database is in catalan an in spanish is obvious that a simple
search like:
(SELECT * FROM painters WHERE artist_name ~* 'Dali');

should perform over Dd Aa Ll Ii (and will not found Dalí).
but on an accent based language also should perform over ÍíÌìÏï

question is:

this c function from Patrice Hédé is the most appropiate tool for
searching on an accent based language ?
http://www.postgresql.org/mhonarc/pgsql-sql/1998-06/msg00119.html

or should I use an implemented function inside postgres right now ?

bests from barcelona,
jaume teixi.