Re: [9fans] sad commentary

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@coraid.com>]

> The fact the UTF-8 was first "implemented" on Plan 9 has nothing to do with
> Plan 9's funtionality as an OS.

it seems like you are avoiding the point on purpose.

i don't think you can pick up a kernel with tweezers and make
a bunch of abstract statements about it.  and so i think the fact
that unicode may be used anywhere a character is expected in plan9
does have a lot to do with the system's functionality.

> If the availability of UTF-8 is an advantage, the absence of a single
> Unicode font in the system useful for non-Latin languages is a very strong
> disadvantage.

what do you base this claim on?  i'm pretty sure that the fonts
distributed with the system are enough to support japanese, greek,
and russian, to name only the ones i can think of quickly

and i am certain that code2000 and cyberbit which are available
on sources provide some of the best unicode coverage for free fonts.
they're not great fonts nor do they have total coverage, but no
fonts do.

> I even doubt there's a "simple" way of inputting, say, Hebrew
> or Arabic in Plan 9. It'll be kind of you to clarify that point for me if
> I'm mistaken.

there is not.  perhaps this is something you could contribute.

- erik