Re: Last Call: UTF-16, an encoding of ISO 10646 to Informational

From: Frank da Cruz (fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 12:03:40 EDT


Marion Gunn <mgunn@egt.ie>
> Randy Bush wrote:
> > mime codifies incompatibility, i.e. those who care why something does not
> > work can tell why. a real comfort for the user.
>
> Actually it is. Confident (as distinct from a competent!) users can and
> do utilize that kind of technical information (that is, an explanation,
> in technical language, of just WHY something does not work) to put some
> real pressure on local advisory staff (whose job it is to make it work,
> or at least, to be on the alert to new developments in the desired
> direction, of which they might not otherwise be aware). mg
>
How can it be the job of local advisory staff to show me how to read
Microsoft Word documents (or Lotus Notes, or PDF, or HTML, etc) with UNIX
mail (or Pine, or ALL-IN-1, or CEO, or PROFS, etc etc). Or to decode
HP-Roman8 text in my Windows-based mail client? It's not my fault I can't
read it. The fact that somebody who is sending me mail is using a different
application or platform or character set than I am is not a new development
that I should be alerted to. Surely the point of e-mail is to communicate,
not to make me run out to buy new software every week.

Oh. Silly me, now I get it. Never mind.



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