Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce!alanf
From: alanf@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU (Alan Grant Finlay)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Snappy Icelanders (this ALED mess)
Message-ID: <4472@bruce.cs.monash.OZ.AU>
Date: 20 Jun 91 07:02:41 GMT
Organization: Monash Uni. Computer Science, Australia
Lines: 31

(This IS the right news group)

Programmers and Software suppliers that do not support adhoc and
whacky alternative character set systems are not selfish.
They are not to blame.  There is I believe a new standard being
drawn up for international character representation
(16bits/character?).  We should all try and support this standard
when it arrives.

This code page stuff is all a bit reminiscent of detecting video
card identity (CGA, EGA etc).  We are often told that it is sloppy
programming to write code which assumes a particular video card.
Nonsense!  It is sloppy machine and operating system design to 
have device dependent I/O (and particularly for there to be no
standard way to detect which card is attached).  Similarly we
should have (human) language character set independent I/O.  

I can understand Icelanders being upset but credit where
credit is due.  Don't blame programmers for refusing or not
knowing how to avoid operating system design flaws.
Its not the operating system designers fault either,
there was no international standard apart from ASCII (by default)
when the IBM-PC was designed.

Do educate programmers to do simple things like: "leave the 8th bit
alone";  but don't expect them to learn details of arcane operating
system fudges.

N.B. I do however believe that programs should be supplied in
source code form - this would allow the users of the current
international code pages etc to modify offending programs.