[tlug] Re: tlug-digest Digest V2003 #164

[Jim Breen <jwb@example.com>]

Tobias Diedrich <ranma@example.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Because Unicode was recently discussed here I think these two links
>> I just found might be interesting:
>> http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/characcodehist.html
>> http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/unicoderevisited.html

They are indeed interesting. People reading them need to be aware
that they come from Ken Sakamura's outfit, which is a focal point
for a lot of anti-Unicode propaganda, mainly because that particular
aspect of the TRON project pushes the alternative "true BTRON
multilingual environment".

The first article is not too bad, although it contains some amazing
gobbledegook. For example we find:

"The other encoding method for JIS is the method called Extended UNIX
Code-JP (EUC-JP), which as the name indicates is the encoding method
used on the UNIX workstations that are the backbone of the Internet. EUC
works in 8-bit environments and is basically a "wrap around" scheme in
which the character codes of East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese,
and Korean) are wrapped around the local version of the ASCII character
set. EUC does this by "adding values" to the characters of each East
Asian language character set. In the case of EUC-JP, for example, values
are added to the characters of JIS, which distinguishes them from ASCII
character codes. The advantages of this system is that any two of four
character sets (the local ASCII and the national character set) can be
handled without the use of escape sequences, and even the JIS X
0212-1990 kanji can be used. The disadvantages are that it requires a
powerful processor and a lot of disk space to implement. However, since
those resources are available in the world of UNIX workstations, the
disadvantages were not deemed to outweigh the advantages."

Since this follows a more-or-less accurate description of Shift_JIS, it
is amazing to find that EUC "requires a powerful processor and a lot of 
disk space to implement". I must have done something wrong implementing
it on my 8Mhz 20Mb HDD PeeCee in 1990.

The Unicode portion of the first article, and virtually all of the
second article are, IMNSHO, one long polemic. It would take far more
time and energy that I have to rebut all the assertions. If you find it
convincing, well sit back and wait for "TRON Project's top-down, macro
design approach", which "hasn't changed since it was introduced to the
world in 1987" to whip the "American, bottom-up, market driven
approach--of which Unicode is but one example".

Cheers

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen (j.breen(a)csse.monash.edu.au  http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/)
Computer Science & Software Engineering,                Tel: +61 3 9905 3298
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia                  Fax: +61 3 9905 5146
(Monash Provider No. 00008C)                ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学