[1] From: "Gregory J. Murphy" <rejek@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> (20)
Subject: Re: 10.0583 reflections on progress
In response to 10.0583, posted by Marta Steele:
> I don't understand why it should still be so difficult to type Greek
> onto a computer screen, read Greek on a screen from someone else's
> disks, access the literature and search it (pace TLG and Perseus,
> etc., I'm delighted they exist). I think we need one Greek font that
> will work with all programs, both at the input and reception levels.
> If this exists, great, but why is it not in universal use? I have a
> feeling it would be quite easy to create, even something applicable
> to both PC and MAC programs. I would like to see TLG and Perseus,
> etc., in more accessible, less expensive forms adaptible to any PC or
> MAC.
As in all things, it is a matter of demand; were there a few
million native speakers of ancient Greek....
There is a universal character encoding scheme which includes
ancient Greek (as well as just about every letter or glyph for all known
languages, alive and dead); it's called Unicode, it is an international
standard (ISO 10646-1), and there is some impetus, at least in Europe, to
implement it. Software developers in the US will probably adopt Unicode if
there is enough demand, which, in this increasingly global marketplace, is
not a too far remote possibility. I hope.
- Gregory Murphy, CETH