Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!slxsys!tsa!domo From: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) Newsgroups: comp.std.misc Subject: Re: Int'l Character set Summary: Apple character set not 8851-compatible Message-ID: <1990Jun5.102128.6577@tsa.co.uk> Date: 5 Jun 90 10:21:28 GMT References: <150@rossignol.Princeton.EDU> <1990May30.045903.14249@agate.berkeley.edu> <3410@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Jun1.010720.16597@agate.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) Organization: The Standard Answer Ltd. Lines: 28 In article <1990Jun1.010720.16597@agate.berkeley.edu> dankg@lightning.Berkeley.EDU (Dan KoGai) follows up <3410@auspex.auspex.com> from guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris): > Is [8859-1] identical to Mac|Next Character sets? Well, I doubt it >but I think total number of characters, if each of diacriticized letter >is distinctive character (in case of Macintosh), total number will well >exceed 0x100. I think it implements diacritics as two characters and it's >up to terminal|screen driver to resolve printing. The Macintosh character set differs from that specified in international standard 8859-1 for characters with codes > 128. Too bad, if not unexpected: the Mac's internationalization features have been ahead of the field since day one, but Apple does not, to my knowledge, participate in or contribute to the standards process at any level. (8859-1 was published in 1987.) Apple's 2.0 release of its A/UX variant of UNIX is billed as having internationalization features. Sadly, these are based on Apple's character set. Confusingly, A/UX 2.0 also provides good support for X Window, which provides explicit support for 8859-1 through 4. It seems one has a choice of incompatible options, even within the same system. Plus ca change... Or, more correctly, plus \215a change (Apple) / plus \347a change (8859-1). Thanks to Guy for dredging up that stuff from me on the forthcoming 10646 standard. Saves me having to do it! -- Dominic Dunlop