X230GV@TAMVM1.BITNET (Glenn Vanderburg) (07/01/88)
I agree that this is really not the place for character-set-related
discussions. I think the point about leaving the eighth (or whatever) bit
alone is very well made. With regard to other related issues: "it's a
dilemma." It's apparent that, eventually, eight bits won't be enough.
For interesting reading, see Xerox' "Character Encoding Standard" (available
from the Xerox Systems Institute) which details many ideas for handling a
16-bit character set. Also, check out "UNIX System Software Readings," by
AT&T Unix Pacific Co., Ltd. The book is actually the proceedings of a
seminar held in Tokyo. One lecture ("Directions in Internationalization,"
by Gary L. Lindgren) contains quite a bit of discussion about multiple and/or
very large character sets, and how we can solve all of the problems. The book
is available from Prentice-Hall.
I'll finish with a request. I was in a bookstore a while back, and I found
a fascinating book about the enormous Japanese artificial intelligence
research effort. The author's thesis was, apparently, that the motivation
of the Japanese (besides good old capitalism) was to develop a computer
environment which would accomodate the Japanese writing system comfortably,
thus preventing (or at least delaying) its demise. I cannot remember the
title, author, or publisher of this interesting-sounding book. Has anyone
else heard of it?
Regards,
Glenn Vanderburg