Re: [Fwd:] Re: [alert] i18n may be removed from X11

[thhsieh@linux.org.tw]

: 感覺上Unicode only 是讓X內部只支持Unicode (utf-8，輸出輸入，傳輸)，
: 其他編碼在使用X界面前應用程序自己轉換成Unicode。  
: I18N 是不管什麼編碼X都通吃，應用程序直接使用當前編碼。X 自己
: 會進行轉碼都工作。
: 目前X支持I18N/Unicode的做法。Unicode 派想去掉I18N部分。

First of all, thanks very much for your comments. :-))
Your points are good. Now the following is my comments. :-))

: 我覺得既然建立了Unicode，而且大家的方向都是最終採取Unicode，
: 把非Unicode的編碼逐漸從底層淘汰是最好都辦法。要等到所有應用非
: Unicode編碼都消失以後才淘汰底層的非Unicode編碼，基本上是不可能
: 的。而且Unicode only 更像是編碼中立的情況，Unicode 是他的
: 內部編碼，你別直接用就行了。
: 
: 對使用者沒什麼影響，對程序員，在輸出輸入前後要多做一個轉碼
: 的手續。
: 
: I18N 的一方考慮對以前I18N的程序兼容問題，另外覺的很多程序員不
: 注重I18N，不會做那道轉碼手續。
: 
: Unicode 的認為，兼容問題，對程序進行修改就可以了，而不理會
: I18N的程序員，他寫的程序在I18N模式下一樣不是I18N，並且現在
: 的這種I18N處理工作都自動都由像gtk/gnome, Qt/kde 這樣都工具庫做
: 了。如果他不用工具庫，他自然也就不怕麻煩，自己處理轉碼也不是
: 什麼非份的要求。
: 
: 還有其他的爭論，反正既然是爭論，自然沒有一方可以說服另外
: 一方的了。而且大家都有理，只是怎麼取舍罷了。
 
I agree with you that even remove the i18n part from Xlib, the
programmer still could work around and provide the i18n program
for the users, such that the users will not notice any changes.
But in any case, my personal buttom line is:

1. The i18n program should still exist, *unless* everybody in the
   earth have *only* used Unicode for a long time.

2. I believe that the base plateform (I mean, libc + Xlib) should
   provide the enough facilities such that developing i18n programs
   is a easy and standard task (I mean, everybody follow the same
   programming style to develop, and not develop from *zero*).

Since libc already have a comprehensive facilities for i18n programming,
I think removing i18n part from Xlib theoritically will not stop the
story of i18n, provided that Xlib should provide a comparable facilities
in Unicode, which includes X Output Method (font randering, ....) and
X Input Method (XIM protocol, ....). Then we may still use the encoding
conversion facilities in libc to accomplish the remaining jobs.

However, one has to be careful that removing the i18n part from Xlib
means that XFree86 will not be compatible to X11R6.X standard, and
even not compatible to its previous releases. The "compatibility" is
a serious issue to be concerned. The Open Source development changes
really very fast :-)) Not the whole of the world could follow such a
fast and dramatic changes. :-))


T.H.Hsieh