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

[thhsieh@linux.org.tw]

: 感觉上Unicode only 是让X内部只支持Unicode (utf-8，输出输入，传输)，
: 其他编码在使用X界面前应用程序自己转换成Unicode。  
: I18N 是不管什么编码X都通吃，应用程序直接使用当前编码。X 自己
: 会进行转码都工作。
: 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. :-))

: 我觉得既然建立了Unicode，而且大家的方向都是最终采取Unicode，
: 把非Unicode的编码逐渐从底层淘汰是最好都办法。要等到所有应用非
: Unicode编码都消失以后才淘汰底层的非Unicode编码，基本上是不可能
: 的。而且Unicode only 更像是编码中立的情况，Unicode 是他的
: 内部编码，你别直接用就行了。
: 
: 对使用者没什么影响，对程序员，在输出输入前后要多做一个转码
: 的手续。
: 
: I18N 的一方考虑对以前I18N的程序兼容问题，另外觉的很多程序员不
: 注重I18N，不会做那道转码手续。
: 
: Unicode 的认为，兼容问题，对程序进行修改就可以了，而不理会
: I18N的程序员，他写的程序在I18N模式下一样不是I18N，并且现在
: 的这种I18N处理工作都自动都由像gtk/gnome, Qt/kde 这样都工具库做
: 了。如果他不用工具库，他自然也就不怕麻烦，自己处理转码也不是
: 什么非份的要求。
: 
: 还有其他的争论，反正既然是争论，自然没有一方可以说服另外
: 一方的了。而且大家都有理，只是怎么取舍罢了。
 
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

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