--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Michael Everson

>http:// for instance.

At the risk of sounding pretty thick - why would I ever type http
thingamy thingamy I am sure I never have.

(from another post)

> How are indigenous people harmed

because they don't have access to the training and there are
serious doubts about how long, and if ever, adults learn
alphabetic literacy.

If the roman orthography for Vai were standardized and visible in
the environment and taught then okay, maybe, but, of course, I
think that would still have a social effect that might or might not
be desirable. I'm not sure. Some researchers have suggested
that minority literacies should be cautious about standardizing.

> by learning the main writing system
> of the planet,

By population or by domain?

>particularly when it is the key to using a very good
> tool, the computer? I mean, really, how?

Who uses URL's anyway. I tell my principal to "go to the little
house, now click on google, now look at the name of the printer
*which is written on the printer*, then type in the name of the
printer and the word cartrage, shall I spell that for you? Here let
me write this down" and so on. This is the real world.

Okay, Michael, here it is - I like reading your Unicode proposals (I
am sure you wish I didin't) and we share an interest in writing
systems, in terms of what they look like on paper. And I use the
encodings, for sure. Other than that, I think we must be
inhabiting alternate universes.

I can do almost anything my job requires and more on the
computer without having the foggiest idea what you guys are
talking about because I follow the little icons. Some of us
illiterates develop other strategies.

Suzanne