Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!enea!sommar From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Re: Reneging on promises (Internationalization) Message-ID: <2445@enea.se> Date: 21 Jan 91 21:17:59 GMT References: <2435@enea.se> <4934@srava.sra.co.jp> Organization: Enea Data AB, Sweden Lines: 30 Also sprach Erik M. van der Poel (erik@srava.sra.co.jp): >Yes, but Stavros is talking about *existing* programs, so how can it >be anything other than a question of updating? (Not that I am for >updating...) Hm, the starting point for our discussion was a programming language (Eiffel) who use []{}\ as special character, and whereof it would be very easy to provide alternatives for the first four. >I wonder which of the following 2 alternatives will be less expensive >to the company in the long run: > > (a) replacing or adjusting the 7-bit hardware, or > (b) countless frustrating man-hours battling software incompatibility There is no software incompatibility to battle. It is just that you have to chose between reading Swedish with brackets and braces or reading programming code where letters appears as special characters. There probably is a cost in man-hours, but none that you just get some figures and then walk into management and say: "hey, let's throw out this stone-age equipment." >I find it hard to believe that there is no 8-bit version of Emacs >floating around in Europe. Here in Japan, we have been using 16-bit >characters in Emacs for *years*. There is no official from GNU, but there hacks floating around, yes. -- Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se One likes to believe in the spirit of muzak.