Re: tlug: A couple of questions about Unicode

[Craig Oda <craig@example.com>]

On Sat, 10 Jan 1998, J. David Beutel wrote:

> But, I think most resistance comes from the mapping between
> Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, rather than within any one language.

My knowledge of unicode is very slim.  From memory of a conversation
with two TLUG members and the editor of O'Reilly Japan, I seem to
recall that the han-unification issue was a big point and that there is
a Japanese book out about how bad unicode is for the Japanese.  
Evidently, it was a best seller in Japan.  The other two TLUG members 
and myself were pro-unicode and the O'Reilly editor was neutral.  We were
just talking about what the Japanese public felt about it.

I _think_ that some of the classical Japanese characters do not
have a mapping in unicode and that this was a big issue.  
I seem to recall that in addition to the known EUC mappings,
there were proprietary sets of EUC mappings for infrequently
used characters.  These differed depending on what company
was doing the mappings.  Of course, these proprietary mappings
were not found in unicode.  

So, I _think_ that some of the infrequently used Japanese characters
would start to look like Chinese or Korean characters.

I have not read the book and this is probably something I should
not comment on.  Hopefully, someone knowledgable will correct me.

Regards,
Craig



------
craig@example.com    
PGP Public Key   http://www.twics.com/~craig/personal/pgp/

---------------------------------------------------------------
Next TLUG Nomikai: 14 January 1998 19:15  Tokyo station
Yaesu Chuo ticket gate.  Or go directly to Tengu TokyoEkiMae 19:30
Chuo-ku, Kyobashi 1-1-6, EchiZenYa Bld. B1/B2 03-3275-3691
Next Saturday Meeting: 14 February 1998 12:30 Tokyo Station
Yaesu Chuo ticket gate.
---------------------------------------------------------------
a word from the sponsor:
TWICS - Japan's First Public-Access Internet System
www.twics.com  info@example.com  Tel:03-3351-5977  Fax:03-3353-6096