I would openly encourage you to help "perpetuate the evidence" so that this
change can be evaluated and the right thing can be done in MS products
(which as I said currently have the slash as a currency sign). Cites and
sources for the investigation, etc. would be very important here.
I do not think there is a localized Farsi version of any 32-bit version of
Windows (well, at least not a legal one!) and AFAIK you cannot even export
software currently. But Farsi support is present and one can only assume
that one day export will be legal.... better to make sure things are right
now instead of later. :-)
michka
a new book on internationalization in VB at
http://www.i18nWithVB.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roozbeh Pournader" <roozbeh@sharif.edu>
To: "Michael (michka) Kaplan" <michka@trigeminal.com>
Cc: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 6:49 AM
Subject: Re: Persian decimal separator
>
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2000, Michael (michka) Kaplan wrote:
>
> > The only question I have here is that no one was *ever* suggesting a
slash
> > be used for the decimal separator. The suggestion was made for the
CURRENCY
> > separator. Since the question was asked (and all of the answers were
made)
> > mentioning the decimal separator only, I would have to wonder whether
they
> > were answering the actual issue that was under consideration here?
>
> They were answering the same issue. No one considers the decimal and
> currency separator different here, and that has been the reason behind
> querying about the decimal separator only. They are named the same
> in Persian, "Momayyez".
>
> > I have two acquaintances (not connected to MS) who speak Farsi, neither
is a
> > linguistic authority or pretends to be. Both recognize the slash as a
> > currency separator, but one of them believes it to be inappropriate to
use
> > on non-Farsi currency amounts and both of them admit the matter is
mostly
> > theoretical since the Farsi currency does not currently see a need for a
> > currency separator (something we discussed last time, I believed). This
is
> > hardly conclusive proof, but if non-technical native speakers can cast
doubt
> > on an issue, then obviously there is reason to believe there may be an
issue
> > worth investigating?
>
> Yes, and that has been the reason behind my investigation. As I told,
> slash is acceptable as a decimal separator, when an appropriate glyph is
> not available. I also agree with your sources that first, Iranian Rials
> won't need any currency separator, since we don't use fractions of Rial
> anymore. Bank accounts and all other systems truncate the amount to whole
> Rials (you may know, 1 US Dollar is equal to about 8500 Rials).
>
> I can also investigate the problem of using the Persian decimal separator
> for foreign currencies, but if you want to know about my opponion, you
> should use the Persian decimal separator if you are using Arabic-Indic
> digits, and you should use the period if you're using the European digits.
> Neither slash nor the Persian decimal separator is acceptable between
> European digit shapes.
>
> > I am not saying that you or they are wrong and would never pretend to
have a
> > true opinion here other than to say I DON'T KNOW (until and unless I
live in
> > Iran and learn Farsi to the point where I can respond to the question!).
But
> > I am unsure how a company (such as Microsoft, which currently lists the
> > slash as the currency separator for Farsi) can proceed to consider
evidence
> > that may well be tainted by having the wrong question asked? Clearly
there
> > was some basis for believing that the currency separator was a slash,
and
> > there should be a compelling basis for believing that this was a
mistake?
>
> The basis exists. There are many kinds of these common typographical
> mistakes in Iran, because of the education system. The professors do not
> bring the attention of students to these issues, believing these to be
> unimportant issues. Only