std-unix@longway.TIC.COM (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) (04/16/89)
To: Ping Lin <ping@hub.toronto.edu> Cc: std-unix@longway.tic.com From: rja <uunet!longway.tic.com!edison.cho.ge.com!rja> The IEEE 1003.1 POSIX standard for UNIX supports non-Roman character sets and non-western concepts of calendars and 'summer time.' This is integral to the 1003 standards effort. I know of no separate effort to create an "international UNIX" outside of the IEEE POSIX effort which is destined to become an ISO standard. The other POSIX committees are also trying to pay attention to international concerns. The X/OPEN Consortium in Europe have developed an _X/OPEN Portability Guide_ (which had much input into POSIX) and X/OPEN standards, which mostly have a European orientation. X/OPEN is working closely with the IEEE on POSIX. The new standard for C includes support for 16 bit characters and other international considerations. This is also destined to become an ISO standard. The ISO has standardised 8-bit character sets for Romanised languages (the ISO 8859 series), and the Japanese standards group has defined standards for the representation of both Kanji and Kana ( JIS C6220 and JIS C6226 as I recall). I'm not sure if the Japanese standards have or will go to the ISO. There is an effort underway to devise a coding standard for Chinese characters as well. Reportedly this group includes representatives from all areas where Chinese is commonly used (PRC, Taiwan, HK, Singapore). My understanding is that this group is working towards a standard to be submitted to the ISO as well. This is mostly from memory, so there might be a few inadvertant errors here. I'm sure someone will post a correction if I made a mistake. These are not necessarily my employer's views. ______________________________________________________________________________ Internet (vastly preferable) : rja@edison.CHO.GE.COM UUCP (if you've got no choice): ...uunet!virginia!edison!rja ______________________________________________________________________________ Volume-Number: Volume 16, Number 29
std-unix@longway.TIC.COM (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) (04/16/89)
From: rja <uunet!edison.cho.ge.com!rja> The IEEE 1003.1 POSIX standard for UNIX supports non-Roman character sets and non-western concepts of calendars and 'summer time.' This is integral to the 1003 standards effort. I know of no separate effort to create an "international UNIX" outside of the IEEE POSIX effort which is destined to become an ISO standard. The other POSIX committees are also trying to pay attention to international concerns. The X/OPEN Consortium in Europe have developed an _X/OPEN Portability Guide_ (which had much input into POSIX) and X/OPEN standards, which mostly have a European orientation. X/OPEN is working closely with the IEEE on POSIX. The new standard for C includes support for 16 bit characters and other international considerations. This is also destined to become an ISO standard. The ISO has standardised 8-bit character sets for Romanised languages (the ISO 8859 series), and the Japanese standards group has defined standards for the representation of both Kanji and Kana ( JIS C6220 and JIS C6226 as I recall). I'm not sure if the Japanese standards have or will go to the ISO. There is an effort underway to devise a coding standard for Chinese characters as well. Reportedly this group includes representatives from all areas where Chinese is commonly used (PRC, Taiwan, HK, Singapore). My understanding is that this group is working towards a standard to be submitted to the ISO as well. This is mostly from memory, so there might be a few inadvertant errors here. I'm sure someone will post a correction if I made a mistake. These are not necessarily my employer's views. ______________________________________________________________________________ Internet (vastly preferable) : rja@edison.CHO.GE.COM UUCP (if you've got no choice): ...uunet!virginia!edison!rja ______________________________________________________________________________ Volume-Number: Volume 16, Number 28