X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] ["1829" "Thu" "3" "December" "92" "13:35:10" "+0000" "Paul Taylor" "pt@DOC.IC.AC.UK" nil "37" "accents" "^Date:" nil nil "12"]) Return-Path: Received: from sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE (serv01) by dagobert.ZIB-Berlin.DE (4.1/SMI-4.0/1.9.92 ) id AA11116; Thu, 3 Dec 92 14:42:29 +0100 Received: from vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de (vm.hd-net.uni-heidelberg.de) by sc.ZIB-Berlin.DE (4.0/SMI-4.0-sc/19.6.92) id AA26768; Thu, 3 Dec 92 14:42:26 +0100 Message-Id: <9212031342.AA26768@sc.zib-berlin.dbp.de> Received: from DHDURZ1 by vm.urz.Uni-Heidelberg.de (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 0404; Thu, 03 Dec 92 14:43:01 CET Received: from DHDURZ1 by DHDURZ1 (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 1606; Thu, 03 Dec 92 14:42:57 CET Received: from DHDURZ1 by DHDURZ1 (Mailer R2.08 R208004) with BSMTP id 1604; Thu, 03 Dec 92 14:42:49 CET Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 13:35:10 +0000 From: Paul Taylor Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project To: Multiple Recipients of Subject: accents Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 884 Gaulle Bernard: > Do we consider that we need to change a well known environment syntax for > an obsolate manner of inputing accented letters? In few years (i hope) > nobody will use the old Knuth manner for putting diacritics and everybody > will input (at least) 8bits chars and then we will discuss about the 32bits > notation... I completely disagree. I accept that English-language cultural imperialism was the root cause of this problem, but SEVEN BIT ASCII is the standard, and will remain so for the forseeable future. (Largely because of IBM's usual spanner-in-the-works approach to standards, and the use of EARN/BITNET networks, eg for this list) it's difficult enough to be sure of the existing full 96 characters in that. There may well be standard uses of 8-bit ascii for the small number of accented letters in French and German - standard, that is, in the French-speaking and German-speaking countries - but the international standard (for whatever accent on whatever letter) must remain Knuth's. It is needed, for example, where accented languages are quoted in an English context. I don't know what these 8-bit conventions are. Now you may put that down to my ignorance, but it is some evidence that they are not as "standard" as Gaulle Bernard would like. It also means that if you come to me (or the TeX implementation I maintain at Imperial College) with your 8-bit documents, they won't work unless Don Knuth, Karl Berry, Frank Mittelbach or Rainer Sch\"opf has put them in to (Unix-C) (La)TeX without my knowing it. Of course French and German speakers will use their national 8-bit standards without problems (I hope) within their own language communities, and I have no wish to force them to do otherwise, but please preserve the international standard. Paul PS I never use tabbing anyway.