Re: Reality check - non-Unicode in Guinea-GTZ documents 2005

From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Thu Aug 17 2006 - 23:06:57 CDT

  • Next message: Doug Ewell: "Re: Reality check - non-Unicode in Guinea-GTZ documents 2005"

    Kent Spielmann <Kent underscore Spielmann at sil dot org> wrote:

    > Does any one have any favorite web resources or teaching materials for
    > introducing Unicode to the uninitiated? Things that are fairly free
    > from technical jargon. How about a curriculum, teaching assignments or
    > tests?

    Two that come to mind are the "What is Unicode?" page:

    http://www.unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html

    and the QuickStudy "Unicode Guide":

    http://www.unicode.org/consortium/guideform.html

    It's not as easy as it might seem to describe coded character sets,
    especially one as complex as Unicode, in terms that a non-technical
    person would understand. The "What is Unicode?" page tries with its
    opening sentence, "Fundamentally, computers just deal with numbers."
    Personally I dislike that sentence -- it is not really accurate
    (fundamentally, computers just deal with "on" and "off") and
    misrepresents the nature of computerized text processing -- but it does
    seem to strike a note with non-technical people.

    What is really needed, of course, is a "Unicode for Dummies" book.
    Seriously. Anyone who has read books in the "Dummies" or "Complete
    Idiot" series knows that some of them are quite well-written, and
    excellent at teaching new material to educable beginners.

    --
    Doug Ewell
    Fullerton, California, USA
    http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
    


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