Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cimshop!davidm From: cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Announcement--new "Unicode" standard Message-ID: Date: 25 Feb 91 05:49:51 GMT References: <39545@cup.portal.com> <1902@public.BTR.COM> <1991Feb24.164137.11897@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1991Feb24.180148.21954@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Sender: davidm@cimshop.UUCP Distribution: comp Organization: Consilium Inc., Mountain View, California Lines: 48 In-reply-to: cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu's message of 24 Feb 91 18:01:48 GMT >>>>> On 24 Feb 91 18:01:48 GMT, cs326ag@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Loren J. Rittle) said: Loren> In article <1991Feb24.164137.11897@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Loren> es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita) writes: Ethan> In article <1902@public.BTR.COM> thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Ethan> Floryan) writes: Thad> and neglected to mention the proposed 16-bits per character in the Thad> article about Unicode that I read. Ethan> What? You mean all those programs that depend on sizeof(char) being 1 Ethan> are going to break! 8-) Loren> Yes, I see the 8-), but I want to make sure everyone knows that in C, Loren> sizeof(char) BY definition is 1. No if's but's or or's. Ah, but there is a "but". In LIMITS.H, there is a macro called CHAR_BIT which gives the number of bits in the smallest possible data object (a CHAR). It must be *at least* 8 bits. So, sizeof(char) is 1, but the number of bits in the "1" can be greater than eight bits. Ethan> Actually, there is no reason why a new 8-bit ASCII definition cannot Ethan> cover most all of the accentuations based upon the Ethan> English/French/German/... alphabet. I'm sure the people making those Ethan> standards aren't truly dumb, but they will get no support for a 16 bit Ethan> standard. Loren> That is kind of amusing, as we already have an 8-bit ASCII ISO standard Loren> that covers English/French/German/... alphabets. Ethan, the Amiga uses Loren> this! I think all these companies are just blowing smoke, I hope Loren> nothing comes of it! Yeah, but as someone else pointed out, there is a whole lot more to the world than those people who write in the Roman languages. The Japan and Russian markets should suggest a huge market that is relatively untapped thus far. Believing that these markets must write English in order to make use of our computers is relatively self-centered, don't you think? And waiting until the market is well established before doing the development necessary would probably mean that American computer companies just won't be players in that market. -- ==================================================================== David Masterson Consilium, Inc. (415) 691-6311 640 Clyde Ct. uunet!cimshop!davidm Mtn. View, CA 94043 ==================================================================== "If someone thinks they know what I said, then I didn't say it!"