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Article View: comp.std.internat
Article #307

Re: 8-bit news

#307
From: Damon
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 05:01
41 lines
2326 bytes
In article <berger.724949297@gram> berger@imag.fr (Gilles BERGER SABBATEL) writes:
>Anyway, the problem is no longer that it is difficult to use 8 bits
>chars.  We need them, and we will use them.  It is no longer acceptable
>in current computer technology to be unable to write one's own language
>without spelling mistakes!  This is simply anachronistic.

Yes but *LISTEN*!  8-bit only makes it right for (say) European
languages.  It hardly lets Chinese or Japanese speakers avoid the
`spelling mistakes' as you put it.

So use something like MIME which can cope with a much bigger character
set than 8-bit and begin to solve the problem for all (human, natural)
languages.

IE, don't be parochial and assume that because it solves *your* problem
it's more then moving from a 1% solution to a 1.1% solution...

(An Englishman telling a Frensh person not to be parochial.  B^>)

(Probably, in fact, moving from a 40% to a 60% solution going from US
ASCII (English) to Latin-1 (most common European languages) when you
add on those who would not be happy to converse in English, but would
converse in Spanish, French, German, Italian, etc.)

And funnily enough, MIME doesn't need 8 bits and the changing of all
the existing software, does it?  It may be ``simply anachronistic'' to
be forced to converse in accentless Latin script to communicate
electronically, but is it *clearly* *simply unreasonable* to make
*everyone* convert *all* their mailer/news software to solve your
unique problem when there is a solution which is more general and less
intrusive.

Or am I missing something again, not being a real linguist or
ISO-character-set expert?

Damon
-- 
Damon Hart-Davis                          Internet: dhd@exnet.co.uk, d@hd.org

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Message-ID: <Bzn9z3.Bs2@exnet.co.uk>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!pipex!ibmpcug!exnet!dhd
References: <davecb.724685064@yorku.ca> <1gtep3INNbm8@rodan.UU.NET> <berger.724949297@gram>

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Newsgroups: comp.std.internat,news.admin.misc
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!pipex!ibmpcug!exnet!dhd
From: dhd@exnet.co.uk (Damon)
Subject: Re: 8-bit news
Message-ID: <Bzn9z3.Bs2@exnet.co.uk>
Organization: ExNet Systems Ltd Public Access News, London, UK
References: <davecb.724685064@yorku.ca> <1gtep3INNbm8@rodan.UU.NET> <berger.724949297@gram>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 05:01:50 GMT
Lines: 41