std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (Moderator, John Quarterman) (10/26/86)
From: nike!ll-xn!mit-amt!mit-eddie!frog!jim (Jim Isaak) Date: Mon, 20 Oct 86 16:52:03 EDT re: mod.std.unix note of Mark Crispin Charles River has been shipping 8 bit "UNIX System V" Derived systems for some 5-6 years, and with a substantial user base in Japan and China. It is important, significant, and very useful that the full 8 bits is carried throughout the file system. Since terminals tend to display what is input, and since a single site tends to use compatible terminals the system does not need to be aware of what character sets are being used -- if it's Kanji in its Kanji out .... as long as we don't start sneaking in automatic conversions or stripping the 8th bit. This alone does not speak to the uppercase/lower case point. While it is clear that we (both as vendors and the standard) would be foolish to not permit at least 8 bit characters, it might still make sense to do a conversion of the "a-z" range to "A-Z" ... at least in theory; any other abuse of the bit ranges would seem to be un-acceptable. So, the question comes down to "a-z" vs "A-Z"; the answers should look forward to a much broader base of users, and to the systems of the 1990's. From a system perspective, every thing I see coming out can support upper and lower case, so there is little incentive for case-folding there. Also, I think the broader range of users (not us computer folk) are used to their local conventions for upper and lower case, and would want to project these onto a given system. That probably means not folding the cases. Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 83