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Re: Debian 2.0 release requirements



> Alex, this is much simpler than you think.
> 
> I will give you a simple example: My keyboard has a key for the \~n letter
> (using TeX notation) which is used in the Spanish language.
> 
> When I press that key, I *expect* to produce such character.
> Not obtaining that letter but some other is completely annoying for me.
> It is as if I pressed "t" and obtained "y". Completely unnaceptable.
> 
> Since you don't have such key in your keyboard, you have nothing to worry
> about, but even if you would have that key in your keyboard, and you
> don't want to produce such character, just don't press that key! Where
> is the problem? I don't see any problem at all!

> > Great. I am already persuaded that I was wrong about "less".
> 
> Ok. Please, tell me another example of a program that should not allow
> 8-bit input (and output) by default.

Hi.

I already gave an example in my other posts - the text editor I use for
programming. When you press \~n (unintentionally I would suppose) while it
is 8-bit clean you will get an error from the compiler, interpreter, etc.
OR (depending on the implementation of the compiler) introduce a hidden
bug. Lucky you, you can easily visually distinguish plain 'n' and \~n
on the screen. I am not that lucky, since I am using cyrillic alphabet
where ALL letters use non-ascii codes but _most_ of them look exactly like
English ones. (Of course, I don't have special keys for them. I use some
key sequence to switch between ASCII and cyrillic modes - this sequence
can easily be pressed unintentionally).  As a result I will be getting
VERY annoying mistakes, which could be simply avoided by having only
7-bit clean editor. The fact is that I would recompile the editor myself
to avoid what I just described.

Thanks.


Alex Y.

-- 
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 |      _ 7           |            Alexander Yukhimets            |
  \    (")            |       http://pages.nyu.edu/~aqy6633/      |
  /     \ \           +-------------------------------------------+


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