Re: Bopomofo keyboards in Taiwan

At 13:40 -0400 2005-08-31, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> > No one manufactures keyboards without letters engraved on them.
>
>Seems like it might be cheaper to manufacture lots of identical keycaps
>than 80 or so different keycaps as on a standard keyboard.

The marketplace thinks other than you do, apparently.

> > >Vai, obviously, can't use a 47-key keyboard.
>>
>> I can type all 340 characters in my Vai +
>> extended punctuation set, on a 47-key keyboard,
>> just fine.
>
>And you're going to "engrave" all 340 symbols on the keycaps?

No, because the keycaps are already engraved with Latin. T + A = TA.

> > I wonder, idly, what you think you mean by that
>> phrase, but it really doesn't matter to me. It's
>
>I mean someone who thinks the way he does something is the best way for
>everyone else to do that something.

I offer a suitable tool for inputting a large number of characters on
hardware available.

>Especially if he's a First World technocrat telling a Third World person
>how to do that thing.

Pish-posh. I am "telling" no one any such thing. And you've offered
nothing constructive in this discussion.

>If they are told that it's the only way, then they have nothing to
>measure it against.

I have already said, many times, that if you or anyone else has an
alternate scheme I would be interested in offering it as a choice to
Vai users. None of you has got out your pencils and tried to meet the
brief I set before you, so far.

> > This insinuation is contemptible. You have
>> insulted me, and you have insulted the good Vai
>> experts with whom we worked to encode this
>> marvellous writing system.
>
>What's marvelous about it?

How sad that you don't take joy in it.

>Who _are_ your Vai contacts?

They are named in the Vai proposal document which you have refused to read.

>If they're not associated with the power elite, how did they get out
>of the country?

None of your damn business, I am sure.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com