From: asadek@st-elias.com
Date: Thu Jul 07 2005 - 20:59:22 CDT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <mark@kli.org>
> I dunno, I was a newcomer here once--just about all of us were.
> And most of us managed to "feel welcomed" and say what we needed to.
But, I suspect, you knew your place and did not doubt and ask too
many pointed questions ("ranting" in Mr. Whistler's email).
I asked questions on Coptic (and I am no newcomer to the field): no
answers. I thought I was polite and sufficiently the humble newcomer
congratulating the author of the proposal who only meekly wished to
be enlightened and after an initial strange answer by the said proposer
was rather puzzled. No answers after several reminders, what am
I to believe but that my questions are embarrassing because they
reveal a two small mistakes in the Coptic proposal?
Again, I don't want to start a controversy but get precise answers to
my precise questions (CS ligature, why? KHI-RO, CHI-RO double).
Am I to understand no small punctual mistakes may have slipped
in Unicode?
I asked where I could find a documented explanation of why UTC and
WG2 did not accept the generative Arabic encoding model since I
think this was a disservice to Arabic users who would have
to wait a long time to see their rare characters encoded. It took
some time until I was told in no uncertain terms that they were none
and that I basically did not understand the perfect working of the
UTC and WG2, that reasons of refusal are simply not provided by
those princely bodies (the whole principle reminds me of the Privy
council rather than the PolitBuro) and that it was me -- who was
simply asking for consolidated explanations, remember I must
ask and not suggest as a newcomer -- who had to write a
document to prove this model would be workable but that it
would very hard to convince the august bodies that look into
the petition sent to it!
I was then surprised that XXXX had been accepted, since I see no
no use for this, that any script does require resources to support it,
that a perfectly viable solution already exists. I then learned it was
a taboo and that it had been the subject of very heated debates
(and Mr. Whistler speaks of proposal not reaching any consensus
having no chance of progressing!). I then got a series of answers
of very dubious analogies (Vai and Cree similar to Hebrew and
Phoenican! Arabic and Latin similar to Hebrew and Phoenician!
and this from experts I am told I must revere as a newcomer...)
The whole thing crowned by a long email implying that newcomers
who ask pointed questions «start complaining and/or ranting ».
What a welcome! Permit me not to feel very impressed.
I will put this very solid defensive display by the Privy Council on
past disputes I have not been witness, and fatigue from members
who have mull over the same complex subject [to me] for
the past 14 years and see the same questions being posed by
newcomers who may be a bit too frank and entreprising.
Ashraf Sadek
(who hopes he can simply now concentrate on Coptic)
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