11.0364 characters, codes, cultural myopia

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Tue, 28 Oct 1997 18:29:05 +0000 (GMT)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 11, No. 364.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: kmatsum@tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp (121)
Subject: Re: 11.0356 accented characters and ISO-8859-1

[2] From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> (23)
Subject: code problems

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 10:00:24 +0900
From: kmatsum@tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Subject: Re: 11.0356 accented characters and ISO-8859-1

Dear Willard,

This is how an ISO'd message looks like on my screen.

Well, practically speaking, you have little problem as long as
you know the character codes and are ready to replace them with
some combinations of ASCII characters. Many of my Finnish friends
don't mind sending me messy messages and I've given up reminding
them of the serious inconvenience they are causing. It would take
much more time to explain what they should do than do the
substitution :-)

Best wishes

Kazuto Matsumura
kmatsum@tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp

------------------ Beginning of a mess ---------------------------------

> Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 12:56:05 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Stefan Sinclair <4ss42@qsilver.queensu.ca>
> > humani[ISO-8859-1] t=E9s
>
>
>
> ********************************************
> * LIL98: L'informatique dans les humanit=E9s *
> ********************************************
>
> http://qsilver.queensu.ca/french/Confs/lil.html
>
> Colloque virtuel et interdisciplinaire
> pour les =E9tudiants et =E9tudiantes
> de deuxi=E8me et troisi=E8me cylces:
> le 14 mars 1998
>
> Depuis sa conception en automne 1996, le colloque "LIL: L'informatique
> dans les =E9tudies fran=E7aises" se donne comme objectif principal l'=
E9cha=
> nge
> de th=E9ories, de m=E9thodes et d'id=E9es sur l'informatique dans ses
diver=
> s
> rapports avec la litt=E9rature et la linguistique fran=E7aises. Il se veut
> avant tout une occasion d'encourager la communication interdisciplinaire
> entre les =E9tudiants et =E9tudiantes de deuxi=E8me et de troisi=E8me
cycle=
> s dans
> ce vaste domaine pourtant relativement jeune. Le colloque ne pr=E9tend =
EAt=
> re
> ni un bilan des diverses et innombrables applications de l'informatique
> dans les =E9tudes fran=E7aises ni une pr=E9sentation des plus r=E9cents
> d=E9veloppements technologiques, mais plut=F4t, un =E9chantillon des
projet=
> s qui
> se font parmi nos coll=E8gues. Si en cours il arrive =E0 former de
nouveau=
> x
> liens entre chercheurs et chercheuses ou =E0 inspirer des directions
future=
> s
> pour des recherches, le colloque aura r=E9alis=E9 son but.
>
> =C9tant donn=E9 que l'informatique est le fil conducteur du colloque
LI=
> L,
> il n'est gu=E8re surprenant que lui-m=EAme se penche si largement sur les
> possibilit=E9s offertes par l'informatique. =C0 chaque =E9tape de son
> d=E9roulement, le colloque LIL est virtuel: d'abord, l'appel de
> communications est disponible sous forme =E9lectronique; ensuite, la
versio=
> n
> pr=E9liminaire des communications est publi=E9e sur l'hypertoile; et enfin,
=
> la
> discussion =E9lectronique a lieu par le biais d'un syst=E8me de
communicati=
> on
> virtuel. C'est justement cet aspect informatique qui a permis au colloque
> LIL97 (l'ann=E9e derni=E8re) de se voir enrichir par une participation
> internationale importante: le Canada, les =C9tats-Unis de l'Am=E9rique,
> l'=C9cosse, l'Angleterre, la France et la Hongrie. Au fait, il est assez
> rare qu'un colloque se donne la possibilit=E9 d'=EAtre deux fois
profitable=
> :
> d'une part pour le contenu des communications et d'autre part en tant
> qu'exp=E9rience pour ce qui sera peut-=EAtre la voie de l'avenir dans le
> milieu universitaire.=20
>
> Les sujets possibles de communications sont nombreux, des plus simples
> emplois de l'informatique aux plus =E9labor=E9s. Les communications
peuvent
> prendre la forme d'une pr=E9sentation de nouveaux outils, approches ou
> applications, d'une d=E9monstration de nouveaux logicels ou syst=E8me
> informatique, d'un examen d'outils, d'approches ou d'applications connus,
> d'une =E9tude du rapport entre l'informatique et les =E9tudes fran=E7aises,
=
> et
> bien d'autres encore...=20
>
> Visitez le site hypertoile ci-dessous pous plus de renseignements et pour
> remplir une proposition de communications. Veuillez transmettre ce message
> =E0 toute personne qui pourrait s'y interesser.
>
> http://qsilver.queensu.ca/french/Confs/lil.html
>
> --
>
> St=E9fan Sinclair, Queen's University (Canada)
>
> WWW: <http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~4ss42/>
> HCR - Rih: <http://qsilver.queensu.ca/QI/HCR/>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Humanist Discussion Group=20
> Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
> <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
3D=
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>

------------------- The mess ends here ----------------------------------

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 97 10:32:35 CST
From: Jim Marchand <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: code problems

From: "Jim Marchand" <marchand@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>

It is interesting to notice how chauvinistic we can be about codes /
characters. There are those who tout 8859-1, codepage 850, mail program
xxx, etc., but the truth is that unless you and the receiver are on the same
page (pun intended), you cannot expect the receiver to get what you are
writing on your screen. All the extended characters in your message come
out in my mail program as !. If I download using html, they come out as Gk.
sigma = a umlaut, etc. It is not, as some intimate, an example of American
imperialism, though way back when somebody decided we needed only ASCII, and
the A does stand for American. You can encode anyway you want, e.g.
&eacute; for e acute, or e/ for e acute, c, for c cedilla, etc. The sender
and receiver have to be on the same page.

Those who decry American alphabet imperialism will please note that 8859-1
is called "European". It is really sort of western European, with this or
that character left out. If you really want to let it all hang out and to
have the capability of sending and receiving all writing systems, you need
to go Unicode / persuade your administrator and Bill Gates to go Unicode.
Windows NT is unicode compatible / compliant, but Windows 95 is not; I don't
know yet about Windows 98.

This subject seems to come up at regular intervals on whatever list one is
on. It frequently comes about because of egotists who imagine that whatever
is on their particular machine is on everyones. The solution is at hand,
but collective we do not seem to want to get it done.
Jim Marchand.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humanist Discussion Group
Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
=========================================================================