Re: [idn] Re: Unicode is not usable in international context.

[Alan Barrett <apb@cequrux.com>]

On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, liana Ye wrote:
> To generalizing and call TC/SC is analogous to spelling 
> differences is wrong, because they are equivalent 
> in NAMEs as ONE unit of screen display, while spelling 
> difference in Latin are equivalent in NAMEs as MORE 
> THAN ONE unit of display, such as "color" vs. "colour". 

People have posted cases where the number of TC characters that make up
a word is different from the number of SC characters that make up the
same word.  People have also posted cases where the number of characters
remains the same but the mapping depends on context.  People have stated
that conversion between TC and SC requires a dictionary of words, rather
than a table of characters.  All these show that TC/SC is analogous to a
spelling difference.

I don't clain that TC/SC conversion or equivalence is not a problem.
Neither do I claim that the potential confusion between <GREEK CAPITAL
LETTER ALPHA> and <LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A> is not a problem.  Neither
do I claim that the potential confusion between English "theatre" and
American "theater" or English "lift" and American "elevator" are not
problems.  But I believe that all these problems are outside the scope
of IDN.

--apb (Alan Barrett)