Re: Unicode, Cure-all or Kill-all?

From: Timothy Huang (timd_huang@mail.formac.com.tw)
Date: Fri Aug 09 1996 - 21:52:04 EDT


Dear Glenn,

No, I'm not the Englightened One, just a very poor professor. I wish I
am though so that I don't have to worry where is my next meal.

I have no problem with political compromise -- we all live in it. I
don't like the Taiwan Juh-yin 2nd form (KanShi Dictionary), but I have
to follow the (political) standard from the government here. I think,
obeying the laws, regulations, standards etc., is something a common
people should do in any country. If I am in mainland China, I'll use
"KangXi ZiDian" so that you can be happy, sir. Speaking of this, when
emperor KanShi did the dictionary way back in 1716 AD, where is the ISO
or Unicoder, and where are you? Or, perhaps he forgot to get a seal of
approval from you? For almost 300 years, this dictionary was and is
still the most authoritative available. (By the way, I have a copy of
the dictionary from China which contains 56,000+ characters.)

On the number game, of course, 1,114,112 is greater than 75,684. But, as
now and up to now, 75,684 is greater than 20,902. And this is the
central point of problem. When the Unicoder Savior will let the Chinese
people have 'enough' characters to use? and when the system software
companies will implement that? Mr. Godot, we are waiting for t-o-o
l-o-n-g already. Yes, some chemists are not happy with the GB-2312 and
Big-5, both were copy versions of JIS.

I dare NOT to represent 1 billion Chinese people, but just myself. As a
Chinese computer user, which you are NOT, I'm fed up with the current
situation. And I was hoping the Unicode would solve (at least some of)
the problem. But, what a disappointment it is! Oh, by the way, I was the
very first one introduced the original Unicode to Taiwan. Oh, I forget
to get your approval, I'm guilty. And for the GB-13000, how many
computer system use that? Do Japan, Taiwan or Korea have the equivalent
national standard? Most of the time, a national standard is a peice of
wasted paper. How many computer systems in Taiwan followed the Taiwan
National Standard CNS 11643? How many computer systems in the States use
ANSI Z39.64? Heck, man, we are living in a very imperfect world.
Anything wrong starts with CCC? I sincerely would like to hear from you,
what's wrong with the CCCII, so I can learn. Seriously, if you find
something wrong with CCCII, I would like to know, so the "gang of four"
can make the necessary correction. Perhaps you don't like my hair color,
so I am guilty?

Smiles,
Timothy Huang



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