Hmmm... I suspect that you could search-and-replace the word "Unicode" with the word "multibyte" or the word "Japanese" and successfully turn the clock back ten years. The difference between then and now is that internationalization retrofit projects are being undertaken just to get Unicode support, rather than to satisfy specific, transient language needs. And the results are generally better [more useful to more people] than the single-purpose solutions of the past.
That is: developers only used to think about these things when they were forced to internationalize---and then they often took shortcuts to support a single, specific language. Unicode *is* complex. But I suspect that my copy of TUS (sans cover) actually weighs less than my copy of Lunde/blowfish. *I* would rather face that putative horde of zombies than go back to multibyte enabling for a living. Best Regards, Addison > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Roozbeh Pournader > Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 5:08 AM > To: Unicode List; unicoRe > Subject: To hell with Unicode ;) > > > > Quoting 'Just van Rossum' from a post on the OpenType mailing list: > > [...] > Sadly, some of the funniest quotes from the Python Quotations > Collection are > about Unicode (from http://www.amk.ca/quotations/python-quotes/ > and beyond): > > I never realized it before, but having looked that over I'm certain > I'd rather have my eyes burned out by zombies with flaming dung sticks > than work on a conscientious Unicode regex engine. > -- Tim Peters, 3 Dec 1998 > > Unicode: everyone wants it, until they get it. > -- Barry Warsaw, 16 May 2000 > > I am becoming convinced that Unicode is a multi-national plot to take > over the minds of our most gifted (and/or most obsessive) programmers, > in pursuit of an elusive, unresolvable, and ultimately, > undefinable goal. > -- Ken Manheimer, 19 Jul 2001 > > Unicode is the first technology I have to deal with which makes me hope > I die before I really really really need to understand it fully. > -- David Ascher, 19 Jul 2001 > > roozbeh > > >
