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From: davidw@jessica.stanford.edu (David Whelan)
Newsgroups: comp.editors,comp.emacs,comp.fonts,comp.lang.postscript,comp.research.japan,comp.text,comp.text.desktop,comp.text.tex
Subject: Computers and Scripts information needed
Keywords: computer,script,language
Message-ID: <30331@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 91 02:14:13 GMT
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I am sorry about the extreme cross-posting of this message, but I feel that it
is justified.  All flames should be directed to me and not posted to the net.

Now for the point of this post:

I am a junior at Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA) who is beginning a
research project on the use of non-Roman scripts with computers.  If you use
computers in any capacity with a non-Roman script, would like to be able to do
so, know someone who fits one of these categories, or have any information
about computing in other languages/scripts, I would appreciate it if you could
take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for me.

Please e-mail all responses to davidw@jessica.stanford.edu.  I will post a
summary if there is enough interest, but I don't want to fill up the net with
replies right now.

Here are some of the issues in which I am interested:

1.  What is your native or current country, and what is the standard language
and/or script for computing there?

2.  What is your native language/script?  (I would appreciate a very brief
idea of what the script looks like, but I can find this out for myself, so
please don't spend a lot of time with this.)  If you use any other languages
or scripts for work, education, or whatever, please explain these also.

3.  What computers do you use?  In the past, has it been difficult for you to
use your language and/or script on these computers?  Have you been forced to
use Roman English or some other language/script for your computing
applications?

4.  Have computer manufacturers been slow to adapt to the needs of your script
or language?  If so, why do you think this has occurred?

5.  Have you been forced to learn another language or script (such as Roman
English) so you could utilize computers?  Do you resent this, or does it make
you feel that your language/script is inferior to others?

6.  Would you appreciate or benefit from a computer system (hardware, operating
system, and applications) that used your language/script instead of Roman
English or something else?  Do you think friends of yours who do not know
English would enjoy such a computer system?

7.  In relation to the above questions, do you think technology influences
language use, or does language use influence technology?

8.  Should there be a standard language/script for international computing?
If so, what should it be and why?  If not, why not?

That's a general idea of the issues that I'm pursuing right now.  I know that
it's a little bit too broad and disorganized, but I'm sure I will have a
better idea of what I'm doing when I learn a little bit more about people's
opinions.  If you choose to respond to this post (and I hope you do, since
this project is very important to me), please try to address the questions
which I posed above.  In addition, I would really appreciate it if you would
add any information that you feel is relevent.

If you are in the Bay Area and would like to talk to me about these issues,
please include your phone number or address.

I hope this hasn't been too long!

Thank you for your help,

================================================================
David J. Whelan				P.O. Box 2831
Junior, Symbolic Systems		Stanford, CA  94309, USA
Stanford University			(415) 497-4432
================================================================