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- Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!decuac!pa.dec.com!decprl!decprl!boyd
- From: boyd@prl.dec.com (Boyd Roberts)
- Subject: Re: Dumb Americans (was INTERNATIONALIZATION: JAPAN, FAR EAST)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan1.114158.17149@prl.dec.com>
- Keywords: Han Kanji Katakana Hirugana ISO10646 Unicode Codepages
- Sender: news@prl.dec.com (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: spooky.prl.dec.com
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - Paris Research Laboratory
- References: <8490@charon.cwi.nl> <1992Dec31.171450.1513@klaava.Helsinki.FI> <1992Dec31.203101.5447@prl.dec.com> <1i0s05INNnfn@rodan.UU.NET>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 11:41:58 GMT
- Lines: 25
-
- In article <1i0s05INNnfn@rodan.UU.NET>, avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov) writes:
- >
- > A good encoding should support easy (i'd say natural) localization.
- > It should provide simple algorithms for simple functions
- > like getting string length, searching a character, case-insensitive
- > comparison, lexicographical comparison.
- >
-
- Well that's where you're wrong. The characters and how they are used
- are distinct problems. Merging them will just not work. UNICODE is
- a good example of this: not only does it specify the code -> glyph
- mapping (ie the encoding) it has support for left -> right, right -> left
- writing styles and a bunch of other stuff, and this part of UNICODE is a mess.
-
- Problem 2 (localisation) is damn hard.
-
- Should Problem 1 cater for the fact I type `localisation' whereas
- you type `localization'? We're both using Engligh, typed on American
- keyboards (I guess, oops mine's made in West Germany) so where are you
- going to draw the line. Is this Problem 1? I say it's Problem 2.
-
-
- Boyd Roberts boyd@prl.dec.com
-
- ``When the going gets wierd, the weird turn pro...''
-