[tlug] i-mode i18n

[Jim Breen <jwb@example.com>]

>> From: Tony Laszlo <laszlo@example.com>
>> > >> If TRON is good enough for kitchen 
>> > >> appliances and satellites, why not the 
>> > >> keitai?
>> > 
JB > TRON! I'd prefer Shit_JIS to going with TRON's anti-Unicode line.
>> 
>> Oh, I don't know. 
>> I would definitely prefer _something_ to continued 
>> use of shift-sjis. 
>> If the establishment hasn't been sold on Unicode (doesn't 
>> look like they have, with regard to cellphones) 

I doubt if Keitai use of Shift_JIS is an example of an "establishment"
rejection of Unicode. Japan is simply full of software developers who
are blissfully unaware of the existence of any alternative to Shift_JIS.

>> maybe 
>> TRON or something that grows out of it will be in the 
>> stars... 

TRON's plugging of the anti-Unicode line is simply misguided xenophobia.
It flies in the face of the whole thrust of international codes, and
indeed the approach of the official standards bodies in Japan.

I have no objection to Shift_JIS being used on keitais. My complaint is
that they mandate it, thus breaking two aspects of the HTTP and HTML
standards. Since an EUC<->Shift_JIS conversion is a trival amount of
code, I think it was extremely short-sighted.

Unicode will win in Japan, as elsewhere, if only because of the market
might of Microsoft. TRON will find itself in a backwater of its own
making on this. 

The only countries in the world where there is any significant
anti-Unicode attitude are, surprise, surprise, Japan and Taiwan. The
mavericks in both places are partly motivated by a dislike of seeing
"their" characters polluted by the others. Everywhere else it is a
non-issue.

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen  (j.breen@example.com  http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/)
Computer Science & Software Engineering,                Tel: +61 3 9905 3298
P.O Box 26, Monash University,                          Fax: +61 3 9905 5146
Clayton VIC 3800, Australia      ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学