MV> Do you think it is fair that I can write my name exactly as it is MV> written in my own language and that you can not?
NB> I think everyone should be able to write their names exactly how NB> they are spelled. I'm not sure as to why this is such a huge NB> argument on Fidonet, but UTF-8, Latin-1 (8859-1), koi8-r, and every NB> other widely used charset out there should have been dealt with NB> when Fidonet became an international network.
that was back in the '80s and early '90s... UTF8 was just getting started around '92 and didn't get really going until Jan '93 when it was first presented at the USENIX conference... it wasn't until 2008 when utf-8 was recognised as the most common encoding for html files...
NB> The rules of English speaking only echos can still hold their NB> weight, but no charset or codepage has ever been deemed the *only* NB> one you are allowed to use.
because the developers at the time saw the need for being able to translate into other character sets to enable others to communicate easier... unfortunately they weren't as successful as they could have been and they left fidonet for various reasons before they could complete their tasks with their software... many left in disgust due to others actions and posts which we still see a lot of similar type stuff today... some few remain but they don't release their code or talk about their work because of the way others talk to and about them...
NB> It has been said in the past, people that don't care to upgrade or NB> re-configure their software to this day and age will see garbage on NB> their screens. So what? It doesn't break anything on their end, NB> except their visual experience.
and that's over half of the reason to participate in the network... if everyone i converse with were to switch to using utf-8 and non-ASCII characters, i would probably leave, too... unless i was able to develop something that fit my needs... whether i do that or not remains to be seen but i do have several megs of code that i have written which is sitting idle and has been for years... some i used to use during development with an eye to releasing it for others to use but the abuse took that idea away and lead to a quite angry and abusive life due to others actions...
NB> That is not the fault of people wanting to keep their software in NB> the current century in regards to international keymaps, charsets, NB> and codepages. *shrug*
the problem is that even though you may be able to properly see eg: cryllic or greek or chinese glyphs, it doesn't really help you read and participate in the conversation... at best you might be able to paste it into a translator and get something that might or might not make sense in english...
anecdote: i had to really laugh earlier at another's utf-8 postings where their russian version offered several variations of 'protein' first and finally offered 'squirrel' as an option... really?
"i have protein in my pants" OR "i have a squirrel in my pants"
:LOLOLOL:
at least that was better than that translator that rhymes with 'thing' ;)
NB> If I could ever get GoldEd to display Cyrillic, Greek, and whatever NB> else it doesn't show properly, I may some day be interested in NB> carrying some Russian echos here, while maybe even trying to learn NB> to read it. I'm glad there's still currently maintained software NB> out there in regards to BBSs and FTN related stuff. Advancement in NB> the software is what keeps me interested in this hobby!
agreed to a point... did you know that what many folk consider to be "modern" software (ie: internet apps) really use '60s tech for their transmissions? eg: attaching a binary to an email... the binary is translated into plain ascii and gains generally 1/3rd the size it would be without the translation (MIME, UUE, XXE) ;)
)\/(ark
Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think. - Werner Heisenberg
