The Internationalisation of Unix - A European View

[Leif Samuelsson]

In article <211 at pyrltd.UUCP> bejc at pyrltd.UUCP (Brian Clark) writes:
> /usr/group/UK is proposing to establish an International Working Group to
> develop current ideas on the integration of European character sets into
> formal proposals.

I think we need to define our terms here. What is the difference
between saying "internationalising" and "nationalising"? To me,
they seem to be two radically different concepts.

Translating Unix commands to other languages and/or
incorporating other character sets should really be called
"nationalising", while the word "internationalising" should be
used to describe the act of making Unix less depending on the
U.S. character set. (And thereby making "nationalising" Unix an
easier task).

For everyone's info, the following eleven characters are to be
considered national, and should be avoided in software meant to
be "international":

	#$@[\]^{|}~

----
Leif Samuelsson

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