From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.user/1461 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Fredrik Staxeng Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.user Subject: Re: coding-system difficulties Date: 14 Nov 2002 13:23:33 +0100 Message-ID: <1misz0tk56.fsf@Tempo.Update.UU.SE> References: <1mr8dps4ix.fsf@Tempo.Update.UU.SE> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138668229 11380 80.91.229.2 (31 Jan 2006 00:43:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:43:49 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: nobody Tue Jan 17 17:29:11 2006 Original-Sender: fstx@Tempo.Update.UU.SE Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.gnus User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.2 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: news.update.uu.se Original-X-Trace: puffinus.its.uu.se 1037275795 news.update.uu.se (14 Nov 2002 13:09:55 +0100) Original-Path: quimby.gnus.org!newsfeed.gazeta.pl!news.man.poznan.pl!news-fra1.dfn.de!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!newsfeed1.bredband.com!bredband!uio.no!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!news.net.uni-c.dk!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!puffinus.its.uu.se Original-Xref: bridgekeeper.physik.uni-ulm.de gnus-emacs-gnus:1601 Original-Lines: 59 X-Gnus-Article-Number: 1601 Tue Jan 17 17:29:11 2006 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.user:1461 Archived-At: Cyprian Laskowski writes: >Reiner Steib <4uce.02.r.steib@gmx.net> writes: > >> If Cyprian uses Emacs with X, the solution is to install proper >> Latin-9 fonts. Or you may want to use ucs-tables, see >> . > >But since Emacs clearly is able to render this stuff, why would I need >extra fonts? Because it's the right thing. :-) >Maybe this is precisely the kind of thing that I don't understand ... >Can someone suggest a good reference (thorough, but not too >intimidating) for someone who has had the mixed blessing of usually >dealing exclusively with ascii/English, but who now wants to become >comfortable with dealing with these kinds of issues, instead of >running into a corner every time or pestering Emacs gurus? I have found some useful information on czyborra.com. For the most part he seems to describe existing practice in a fairly objective way. When you you want to compare specific characters sets, you can use the files on http://www.unicode.org/Public/MAPPINGS. If download the files and run diff on them you will see which characters that differ. Some countries seem to have one dominant way of coding their language in computers. Some countries have a few mostly compatible encodings. Some countries have incompatible encodings, so software tend to acquire auto-detection capabilities. Language is highly politicized issue in some countries. Some people want to push Unicode/UTF-8 as the solution. Microsoft have used embrace and extend even in this arena, and are of course met with some resistance from the other systems. Some people resent that English has (almost) fulfilled the esperanto dream of becoming the world's standard second language. This issue also holds some mystical attraction for people who like to take small problems and do big overcomplex solutions. (I'm thinking of certain Dane, not anybody present here). So there is plenty to fight about. The politics are complex, but when looking closer I have always found the technical issues to quite simple. This is not surprising after all. When you take a computer system and make it able to represent your language, you take the easiest way. You also preserve compatibility with English, so using English on a Thai computer is not a problem. Using Greek on Thai computer probably is. (Except for bidirectional scripts. I don't see any reasonable way to handle that. But some UTF-8 supporters seem to have come to the conclusion that the only feasible technical solution is to change the script, so I am not alone) -- Fredrik Stax\"ang | rot13: sfgk@hcqngr.hh.fr