Re: [Fwd:] Re: [alert] i18n may be removed from X11
On Fri, Sep 07, 2001 at 09:59:46AM +0800, thhsieh@linux.org.tw wrote:
> 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
I believe those Xuft8* routines and properties are created for this
purpose. Seems the proposal is to only keep Xutf8 routines.
So your bottom lines are covered. :)
> 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. :-))
>
Well, this is a valid point. As I said before, it is all about
trade off and make decision. The whole thing is just how much
you value each points.
Personally, I don't give a dime to OpenGroup and their X11R6.x.
They are not vital. When X11R6.4 was released, they threatened
to close its door. Free Software community didn't give in, so
OpenGroup gave in. Although the progress on XFree86 is slow,
X11R6.4 is even slower now a day. No much people contribute to
the OpenGroup's X11. Commercial venders working on their own
version of X11. The result is OG's version X11 is dragging our
for so long.
Luckily, XFree86 now gets the point and starts moving on its own.
We already have many things that are not in OG's X11. Although the
extensions still try to keep compatible with OG's X11, I don't
think it will last long before the compatibility thing is too much
a burden. Then compatibility will not be kept. Or maybe OG's will
be forced to catch up with XFree86. You know how long it takes
them to open Motif after Motif lost its edge to Free alternatives.
Anyway, I don't think compatible with X11R6.x should be a major
fact that stop us from moving forward. We CJK users suffer the
most without the Unicode conversion. Therefore I would like to see
the conversion process goes faster, not slower.
ぃ??ぃミ
--
Best regard
hashao
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