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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA5728 ; Fri, 01 Jan 93 01:53:50 EST Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!uknet!mcsun!sunic!nobeltech!ppan From: ppan@nobeltech.se (Per Andersson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: INTERNATIONALIZATION: JAPAN, FAR EAST Keywords: Han Kanji Katakana Hirugana ISO10646 Unicode Codepages Message-ID: <1992Dec30.010715.2731@nobeltech.se> Date: 30 Dec 92 01:07:15 GMT References: <2564@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp> <1992Dec27.223146.5959@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu> <1992Dec28.065540.24637@fcom.cc.utah.edu> Organization: NobelTech AB Lines: 79 In article <1992Dec28.065540.24637@fcom.cc.utah.edu> terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes: >In article <1992Dec27.223146.5959@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>, jliddle@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Jean Liddle) writes: >|> In article <2564@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp> mohta@necom830.cc.titech.ac.jp (Masataka Ohta) writes: >|> > >|> >Do you know that Japan vote AGAINST ISO10646/Unicode, because it's not >|> >good for Japanese? >|> > >|> >>So even if the Unicode standard ignores backward compatability >|> >>with Japanese standards (and specific American and European standards), >|> >>it better supports true internationalization. >|> > >|> >The reason of disapproval is not backward compatibility. >|> > >|> >The reason is that, with Unicode, we can't achieve internationalization. >|> > >|> >Unicode can not cover both Japanese and Chinese at the same time, because >|> >the same code points are shared between similar characters in Japan >|> >and in China. >|> > >|> >Of course, it is possible to LOCALIZE Unicode so that it produces >|> >Japanese characters only or Chinese characters only. But don't we >|> >need internationalization? >|> > >|> >|> I have been following this discussion for some time, despite the >|> (IMHO) obnoxious header :-). I have been surprised that up until >|> now the 32-bit proposed standard (I no longer recall the OSI number) >|> has not been mentioned. I personally would prefer this, for the >|> reasons stated above (japanese/chines collisions in Unicode). Furthermore, >|> for research involving ancient egyption texts or other "obscure" languages, >|> 16 bits even with some expandability would probably not be sufficient. > >I would also like to see this (although I believe the 32 bit standard in >question is Unicode-32). > >I wonder at the transcribability of such things as Ancient Egyptian >Heiroglyphics, where it seems the art work is intimately involved with the >meaning; I can't argue, however, that Aramaeic and other dead written >languages should probably be represented. This was the justification for >moving to 32 bits suggested in the Unicode Volume II. One wonders at the >amount of memory necessary to store such a font. > >|> I personally would vote for support of 32-bit characters rather than >|> Unicode, if anyone is able to scare up the docs on the proposed 32-bit >|> character standard. This would allow Linux to avoid the comming >|> difficulties with chinese/japanese font collisions, and also keep it >|> out on the leading edge, rather than following Microsloth's somewhat ... >|> ah ... shall we say, questionable leadership in this area. > >I believe the "collision problem" has been vastly overstated, unless you mean >that there actually exist multiple Unicode fonts with different glyphs at the >same lexical locations; I don't believe this is the case. > >It is a basic assumption that input, if not also output, will require some >type of localization; it is equally likely that there will be few mixed >language mechanisms, and that such localization will need to be done on the >basis of a per tty method, if nothing else, to provide for the message >catalog translators. Since we are not directly bound to a graphic >environment, I don't think it is possible to designate a widget/device as >that mechanism unless we are willing to give up text-only devices entirely. >Similarly, the lack of a streams mechanism makes it unlikely that a pure tty >environment will suffice for the translation process. If this is accepted, >the collision problem, as I see it, is non-existant. > > > Terry Lambert > terry@icarus.weber.edu > terry_lambert@novell.com Why, oh, why do we have to have another new unicode, invented by some stubborn US companies, when the whole world at last has agreed on ISO-10646 ? Not Invented Here ? /Per -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Per Andersson - ppan@nobeltech.se (perand@stacken.kth.se on free time) Managing networks at, but not speaking for Nobeltech AB, J{rf{lla, Sweden -----------------------------------------------------------------------------