psv@nada.kth.se (Peter Svanberg) (09/04/89)
tprc-resources were invented to be used in file conversion and telecommunication applications. Why aren't they, so far, used in the latter - not even by Apple? Are they still recommended for that use or was it found to be a bad idea...? BACKGROUND The document "Translating Between Character Sets" has been around since July 8, 1987 (date of last revision) as an "Inside Macintosh Interim Chapter Draft". This document describes the structure of the two resource types "tprc" and "tprf". The former contains special procedures which transli- terates (converts) between two character sets. The latter is just a way of grouping resources of the former type. I have seen the document both on Applelink and on the Apple- distributed CD "Phil & Dave's excellent CD" (in "Moof:Documents:Macintosh Documents:IMIC.Translation (MS Word)"). This, and the fact that you can find such resources in Apple File Exchange files, makes one believe it's an "official" document which is still valid. One important incentive to the invention of these resources was - according to the document - the need to transliterate between character sets in telecommunications programs. If you live in a non-USA-character-set country you are used to having character conversion (amongst many other related) problems. As I have been wrestling with this in terminal emulators, I became full of expectation when I first read the document. Perhaps, I thought, this problem will be solved once and for all! So far, none of my expectations have come true. I wonder why. * Why aren't any tprc and tprf resources included in the system? At least the procedures for transliterating (in both directions) bet- ween Mac and the national variant(s) of the 7-bit code should be there. * Why aren't this method used in later version of MacTerminal? Not even the new Communications Toolbox seems to use it. (At least not in the beta version I have come across.) * How is the programming of such resources handled? Are developers allowed to register new ones or has Apple the sole right? Is perhaps one answer to the first two questions that the procedure- way of doing the transliteration (instead of resources containing tables) is too slow? Can someone at Apple - or someone else who knows - give me answers? Why I ask? Well, besides pure curiosity I want to know if it is worth while to implement this method when I change programs to be usable in our country (and others). (I have more details on how I think this should be done, tell me if you are interested.) --- psv@nada.kth.se (should work!) Peter Svanberg uunet!nada.kth.se!psv (for lazy nodes...) Dept of Num An & CS psv%nada.kth.se@uunet.uu.net (ARPA nodes) Royal Institute of Tech Stockholm, SWEDEN