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Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!hp9000.csc.cuhk.hk!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu!agate!doc.ic.ac.uk!kd From: kd@doc.ic.ac.uk (Kostis Dryllerakis) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: INTERNATIONALIZATION: JAPAN, FAR EAST Date: 15 Dec 1992 15:14:29 GMT Organization: Imperial College, London, U.K. Lines: 57 Distribution: world Message-ID: <1gksolINNmkg@frigate.doc.ic.ac.uk> References: <dosburn.723844277@cwis> <2485@specgw.spec.co.jp> <1992Dec14.185028.9757@fcom.cc.utah.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: sophia.doc.ic.ac.uk Keywords: Han Kanji Katakana Hirugana ISO10646 Unicode Codepages In article <1992Dec14.185028.9757@fcom.cc.utah.edu>, you write: > I know a lot of the Japaneese 386BSD community can not email out of Japan, > so this is an open letter to them, and to Atsushi MURAI and other people > there who are active in this newsgroup. > > What kind of internationalization would best enable you to use 386BSD? > > o Kanji support? > o Kana (Katakan/Hirugana) support? > > ... rest of the article follows Although I know this is not exactly an answer to your question I would like to point out that except from Japanese members of the BSD community there also exist other nationalities with similar problems. Speaking for myself I can tell you my wishes for an international version of BSD that will allow usage of greek character sets. Point 1: One has to be able to enter latin and greek characters at the same time. The way it is currently done in greece is by extending the 128 ASCII set to include the greek characters int the upper 128 positions. All 8-bit clean programs can therefore at least output the greek chracters on screen. The produced character sets havebeen internationally accepted at ISO standards and at IBM internal standards (ELOT fonts). For PC with VGA (or higher specification) cards you will expect downaloadable fonts. Point 2: In order to enter the greek characters together with the accented ones a keyboard driver at low level must handle the interaction toggling at the press of a hot-key between greek and latin keyboard translation modes. >From these points two (simple enough) features will be needed: A console driver that will allow font loading for the default font and a keyboard driver (customisable for each country) that will allow remaping of the keyboard at kernel level. If the two points are followed then compatibility will be given with the current approaches in Greece. Preliminary attemps have already been made (I personally work under X-windows with greek ISO-standard characters without many problems) but a coordinated effort for internationalisation is indeed necessary. Note that the rest of the operating systems are currently "externally touched" in order to support the greek language i.e. bu hacking your way out. And for those who are worried about the further usage of greek in the BSD system I beleive that enough tools exist to allow printing and editing of greek based texts (groff, TeX and all the 8-bit clean utilities like vi). Kostis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K J Dryllerakis Deparment of Computing Logic Programming Group Imperial College, LONDON Janet: kd @uk.ac.ic.doc Tel: +44(71) 589 5111 x5089 Uucp : kd@icdoc.UUCP Internet: kd@doc.ic.ac.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------