Xref: utzoo news.software.b:5176 alt.sources.d:698 comp.sources.d:5679
Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!umich!ox.com!lokkur!scs
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: news.software.b,alt.sources.d,comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Time for 8 bit news, isn't it?????.
Message-ID: <1990Jul21.174535.8281@lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Date: 21 Jul 90 17:45:35 GMT
References: <777@hades.ausonics.oz.au> <1990Jul21.083046.13075@squirrel.mh.nl>
Organization: Inland Sea
Lines: 39

jv@mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes:

:> Why don't all you people divert your energies into making your news system
:> handle 8 bit news ...
:> Considering the advantages, (especially to binaries groups), ...

:Very short-sighted. Major advantage is to allow information exchange
:in local languages that require special character sets.
:And don't tell me that the "language of the news" is English, since
:that is only true for agreed-upon international newsgroups.

The sarcasm lamp is now lit.  :-)

So what's your point?

Leave us not forget that 8-bits isn't the answer for all languages,
either.  Of course, there aren't many of us reading the current news
who want to read those kanji, katakana, and ghu-only-knows what other
variants.  Still, we should all be forced to make software that is
capable of handling it so that the English readers can look at the
Hindi, Korean and Russian postings that flow by.

And I'm sure those guys back at Duke said, "Hey, let's have some
agreed-upon international newsgroups that'll be only in English
and we'll implement to enforce it."

The sarcasm lamp is now off.  :-)

Hey, news is ASCII-based, written in english-speaking countries for
english-speaking readers.  That fact that it works *at all* for
international and non-English stuff is a wonderful plus.  If regional
newgroups have regional needs, they should go ahead and fill them.
But neither side should expect interoperatbility.

My understanding is that a number of nordic installations now have
appropriate hacks to encode/decode/display their national character
sets.  That's super; I hope that software propogates its way across
the water.  But proper gateways and translations (into 7-bit)  will
be needed or the postings are gonna break a lot of systems.