wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) (06/19/91)
In article <2785@nemesis.stsci.edu> roberts@stsci.EDU (Jim Roberts) writes: >All these postings are astonishing, from both sides of the Atlantic. And even from the middle of it, if you count the Icelandic postings into the astonishing group. :-) >Almost noone, including the initial posters, has made a due-diligence >effort to determine if the 8th bit was the problem. I see the >discussion, therefore, as a breast beating exercise on claiming one >side or the other of the Political Correctness franchise. The 8th bit isn't a problem, but rather the fact that many programs (and *not* only from the US, I've seen domestic ones do that error as well :-( ) either don't accept characters with the codes 128-255 or convert them into 7 bit representations. This discussion is (as far as I can see) mostly a way of airing the concern of the non-US users to US programmers, and at least partly about ways to avoid the problem. (BTW, could someone give me an explanation of phrase 'Political Correctness', which I think I understand, at least partly, but which my dictionlary doesn't. Exactly what does it mean, where does it come from, etc. Thank you.) >Long ago, the evidence suggested that the 8th bit had nothing to do >with the problem with ALED, but the debate rages on. One is reminded I think that the discussion has evolved from ALED to general principles and techniques. ALED may or may not have the problem, but there are lots of programs that most definitely do. At least some of us participating in this discussion would like to reduce the number of programs with this kind of problem. (BTW, it might not be a problem to you, but it is to me. And the problem isn't only with PD and shareware program either.) -- Lars Wirzenius wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi