From: Peter Constable (petercon@microsoft.com)
Date: Thu Dec 20 2007 - 01:31:39 CST
> From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On
> Behalf Of Ed Trager
> The article from religioustolerance.org mentioned earlier in this
> thread (http://www.religioustolerance.org/ceintro.htm) provides fairly
> good evidence that certain groups of people who are actually quite
> interested in religion and religious tolerance are those who are
> promoting this usage the most. I for one find it interesting that it
> is --perhaps-- not so much the secular humanists who want to use these
> terms as those who believe deeply in religion and see these terms as a
> way to better facilitate dialog across differing religious communities
> in the inter-connected modern world. As the aforementioned article
> points out:
>
> "The world is becoming more integrated financially, politically,
> socially and religiously. A universal calendar notation is needed.
> Recall that for every Christian there are about two non-Christians
> worldwide. References to Christ and to the Judeo-Christian God offend
> many of the latter. A universal notation needs to be religiously
> neutral in order to be generally accepted. CE and BCE meet these
> requirements."
Just because the article states something doesn't mean that it makes sense or is true. When in the past 100 years has the world been much more *dis*integrated religiously than it is now? This strikes me as much as anything like someone trying to make something happen by stating it has happened, and like someone who wants to see a world that is in some sense religious without anyone embracing a faith.
But that's all entirely off topic. Internationalization of software is not about trying to design software to follow some neutral, universal culture. It's about accepting that users are different, that one-size-fits-all leaves most users unhappy, and that software needs to be adaptable to different preferences.
To those whose cultural preferences this matches, a merry Christ's mass. To all, I extend my good will that you be at peace.
Peter
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