Re: i18n/Mac --> mixing langs.

> From: "Nicholas Bodley"
> To: <qalam@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 9:27 PM
> Subject: Re: i18n/Mac --> mixing langs.

> On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 11:34:43 -0500, Richard Wordingham
> <richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
>
>> Is there a distinction made between allowing users to use other
>> languages and being able to mix languages?
>
> Peter Constable knows better, but it seems to me that a
> properly-configured computer running reasonably-up-to-date software should
> be able to do that. I'm back in the Win 9x time frame, yet I'm often
> pleasantly surprised to see what I can do. I did see mixed English and
> Thai on my screen, iirc even when I replied and the Thai was quoted.

That's not necessarily 'mixed script' in the relevant sense. The Thai
encoding (TIS-620:2533, amplifying TIS-620:2527 if I remember the years
right) is a superset of ASCII. Thai needn't be a 'complex script'; you can
get typewriter quality (still consider good enough for subtitling on UBC,
the Thai cable/satellite company - see
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=29663&st=14 ) without any
complex processing. You do run the risk of not being able to get the
appropriate matches when searching because sometimes vowels below tonemarks
are entered after them (still a Mac problem), but even with complex
processing you can still have failures because sara am is not canonically
equivalent to nikkahit + sara aa; they are only identical in traditional
grammar and visual appearance.

Richard.