Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!ames!dftsrv!amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov!xrtnt From: xrtnt@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Nigel Tzeng) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Reorganization vote tidbits and Re: An AmigaVision Question Message-ID: <4043@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: 29 Nov 90 15:05:07 GMT References: <16059@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1990Nov27.020432.11108@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <309.275232e9@vger.nsu.edu> <1990Nov29.011411.479@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Sender: news@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: xrtnt@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD, USA Lines: 109 News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4 In article <1990Nov29.011411.479@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes... ^manes@vger.nsu.edu writes: ^> xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: ^>> karl@cbmvax.commodore.com (Karl Herrman - CATS) writes: ^>>> boily@phy.ulaval.ca (Edouard Boily) writes: ^ ^>> [Description of AV_Text Purpose deleted] ^ [stuff deleted to save bandwidth] ^ ^>> Last I heard, there are some 3000 different human languages. Don't you ^>> think you might be limiting your market just the teensiest bit by making ^>> distribution to these other language groups wait until you folks get ^>> around to finding someone who knows each language to do the translation ^>> for you? ^ ^> I suspect of those 3000 languages only the languages that Commodore ^> has a market in would be supported. I believe that would limited to ^> around 10-15 languages (if that). ^ ^French, German (HochDeutsch und PlattDeutsch), Danish, Swedish, Norse, ^Gaelic, Scottish, Welsh, Walloon, Finnish, Icelandic, Spanish, Dutch, ^Afrikaaner, Dravidian, Chinese (High and Low), Japanese (Three forms), ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Eh? High and low forms? What quaint locale did you glean this tidbit from? As far as the eastern symbolic languages go you can pretty much give up on the idea of a simple UI port from any Eurpoean language. You might scrape by using the various pronunciation translation systems (like PinYin for Chinese) but this requires the user to know the alphabet. Odds are anyone capable of reading pinyin is also capable of reading at least rudimentary English. Nice of you to think of the oddball user though ;-). This does bring up just how do people manage to make a computer system that will work with eastern languages? I've seen Chinese word processors on the PC but these all require quite a bit of learning curve to figure out correct keystrokes to form words. While there are "primitives" in the written language (like certain common radicals) some of the key combos are non-intuitive. Then again I'm not a native writer so it might have just been me. I've also seen shows where you see some Japanese programmer happily typing Japanese on some terminal (and presumably programming or something). ^Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Korean, Philipean, Tagalog, Russian, Polish, ^Slovak, ... and that's just the ones I know of the native languages of ^those writing _me_ about the Amiga. Wow, I'm impressed Kent. Didn't know you knew so many languages! ;-) I'm kinda guessing the wrote you in English. ;-) ^ ^>> As opposed, say, to putting the file out in well documented, easy to ^>> modify form, and letting the vast knowledge of the user base be brought to ^>> bear to get the port done in 1/10 the time and cost to Commodore, thereby ^>> boosting your sales and hastening the return on your software development ^>> investment. ^ ^> Kent, I am surprised at you! ^ ^No you're not, Mark, we've been friends a _long_ time. ;-) ^ [stuff deleted to save bandwidth] ^ ^I object to the _encryption_, deliberately obfuscating the process ^needed to port the package to a second language. How long is the ^Tagalog market expected to limit the machine to English speakers only? ^A damned long time if they have to wait until Commodore gets around to ^supporting such a small market. Don't disagree with you overly much there. BTW: What does Tagalog look like? There is a further question though. Just how is a Tagalog native supposed to read the documentation on how to use the Amiga without knowing English? CLI would be right out and intuition a bit iffy. It may be user friendly to us (who have used computers for some significant portion of our lives) but it is hard for a non-computer type to just sit down and use...no matter what Apple would like us to believe ;-). ^ ^The immense success of open architecture as opposed to closed architecture ^hardware should have made its point by now: third party add-ons help sell ^your product, they don't compete with you directly. This applies just as ^well to software. A good part of the success of Lotus 123 can be laid to ^the follow on market products that improved its utility. There is a slight difference in hacked software than in copied hardware. It is one of those levels of degree things. Yes, it should be open enough for third party people to write new gizmos for it (like device drivers/controllers, and so on). But not so open as to allow hacking at the internals. Kinda like computer security...you want enough security not to get burned and not so much no one can get any work done. In this case it really wouldn't look good if someone hacked in obnoxious messages in the displays. People may assume that Commodore was responsible. [rest deleted] ^ ^Kent, the man from xanth. \\\/// settle for See Ya and Have fun with the Voting. Looks like you "are". ;-) NT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // | Nigel Tzeng - STX Inc - NASA/GSFC COBE Project \X/ | xrtnt@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov | Amiga | Standard Disclaimer Applies: The opinions expressed are my own.