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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!minow
From: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Newsgroups: net.internat
Subject: Are the funny letters really needed?
Message-ID: <173@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 19:08:38 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.173
Posted: Wed Feb  5 19:08:38 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 20:36:28 EST
References: <2178@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin minow)
Organization: DEC - ULTRIX Engineering Group
Lines: 22

Roy Smith, in 2178@phri, writes:

>I would guess, however, that most European languages would do OK
>without an extended character set.  I'm not saying it wouldn't be ugly, or
>that it wouldn't look funny, or that this would be acceptable for business
>letters.  I'm just saying that the meaning would be clear.  For an ATM,
>that's probably good enough.

Once upon a time, when computers were new and didn't have any funny
letters, a Swedish man refused to pay a bill.  He said that the
bill wasn't made out to him and that he had the right to his own
name.  The courts agreed.

Computers quickly learned the correct alphabet.

There are a number of examples where leaving the "diacritics" off a
word drastically changes its meaning.  For example, if you leave
the ~ off the name of the mayor of Denver, you are calling him
a small dog.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow