[comp.sys.next] French in User Manual

awang@isl.Stanford.EDU (Avery Wang) (02/23/90)

I can't figure out why of all things there is a French translation of
appendix C in the NeXT User's Reference manual.  Why French?  Why not
also German or Japanese?  Why Appendix C?

Just Curious.

-Avery Wang
awang@isl.stanford.edu

clement@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Clement Pellerin) (02/23/90)

In article <12@isl.stanford.edu> awang@isl.Stanford.EDU (Avery Wang) writes:
>I can't figure out why of all things there is a French translation of
>appendix C in the NeXT User's Reference manual.  Why French?  Why not
>also German or Japanese?  Why Appendix C?

It says why somewhere in the manual.  It's required by law in Canada.
There should be at least an installation manual in both Canadian
official languages.  Since they already have it translated why not make
it available to everyone:  A single copy of the manual for everyone
everywhere.

I guess no other country has such a law.
-- 
news <clement
Clement Pellerin, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
clement@opus.cs.mcgill.ca

daugher@cssunf.tamu.edu (Dr. Walter C. Daugherity) (02/23/90)

In article <12@isl.stanford.edu> awang@isl.Stanford.EDU (Avery Wang) writes:
>I can't figure out why of all things there is a French translation of
>appendix C in the NeXT User's Reference manual.  Why French?  Why not
>also German or Japanese?  Why Appendix C?
>
>Just Curious.
>
>-Avery Wang
>awang@isl.stanford.edu

So they can sell it in Canada.  Thanks to French-speaking activists in Quebec
province, Canada is officially a bilingual country and just about everything
must be written in both languages (e.g., the instruction and information pages
in the front of a phone book).

Perhaps Appendix C comes under the Canadian legal requirement for "operating
instructions" and the rest of the manual doesn't?  Anyway, it's nice to see
how prettily the French accents and special characters turn out, n'est-ce pas?

g2k@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Frederic Giacometti) (02/28/90)

In article <1899@opus.cs.mcgill.ca> clement@opus.UUCP (Clement Pellerin) writes:
 ...
>It says why somewhere in the manual.  It's required by law in Canada.
 ....
>I guess no other country has such a law.

France and Germany also have such law. The North American distribution is common
to the continent. Europe and Japan just receive a different edition of the
installation manual.

As somebody remarked, not only there are nice accents, but I was surprised
by the quality of the traduction in french, well above the average technical
manual!!
I always thought that NeXT had a touch of class.