Re: AW: tlug: Japanese filenames (was: EUC & SJIS)

[Jonathan Byrne - 3Web <jq@example.com>]

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Scott Stone wrote:

>I'd say that it's okay to use non-7bit filenames as long as the following
>two criteria can be met:
>
>	1.  You're SURE that nobody who doesn't understand your language
>will be needing/wanting the files

If a file is written in Japanese, it's a pretty safe bet that no one who
doesn't understand it will have any use for it.  Doesn't you much good if the
file name is ASCII and the rest of the file is in Japanese, does it?  The
documentation for Canna and Wnn that I've seen is a good case in point.  It's
in Japanese.  All of it.  Except the file names.  So it really wouldn't matter
much if the file names were also in Japanese, would it?

>	2.  You're SURE that nobody with a computer that's not set up to
>decode the language in question will ever need/want the files.

Anybody who covers number 1 is pretty likely to be using either a
Japanese-capable or Japanese-localized operating system.  I18n still has a
long way to go before it reaches maturity, but the ideal will be a system
on which displaying any characters will simply be a matter of installing the
proper font, any number of languages could be simultaneously displayed on one
page, and input in a given language would simply be a matter of installing the
proper FEP and necessary character server, and switching the language in which
the operating system displays its menus, messages, etc., will be simply a
matter of putting in the appropriate text files and setting the locale.

Pieces of this already exist and Unicode is a good step in the right
direction, but it seems as if we're still pretty far from anyone pulling this
all together and making it work the way it ought to.  It will happen, though,
and the advantages for multi-national OS vendors would be great, since it
would be so easy to localize an OS, add extra language support to an OS, etc.
Will it take more memory and more CPU power? Sure, but everything does and
memory and CPU cycles have both never been cheaper.

Jonathan Byrne
Media and Content Section
3Web - Your Internet Solution! <URL:http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/index.en.html>
3Web Channel <URL: http://www.3web.co.jp/>

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