Text 20302, 88 rader
Skriven 2011-07-01 12:09:26 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: character sets
======================
Hello Robert,

On Wednesday June 29 2011 11:16, you wrote to me:

 RB> I worked for months trying to get GoldED Lnx to display special
 RB> characters (non-ASCII, in particular the German umlauts and the
 RB> esszet) properly, and was never totally successful. For reasons
 RB> unknown, others had no problems. This is one of the biggest problems
 RB> involved - some people have massive problems, others with seemingly
 RB> identical systems appear to have none, or at least write that.

Welcome to Fidonet where that happens all the time.

Remember, now over half e decade ago when you kept harping me over not using a
"decent editor" that could handle initials in quoting? You recommended Golded
to solve the problem, but I could never get the DOS version to work. It kept
hard crashing my system. So hard that it reset the clock with disastereus
results for my message base. I finally gave up. I also tried MsgEd, but that
did not meet my expectations either.

It was only when I said goodbye to DOS and switched to Windows that I got
Golded to work properly. In hindsight it was probably in incompatibility with
Novell DOS.

Well, that is history.

 RB> but that program was simply too primitive for my taste after having
 RB> used Golded for so long.

And your problems with Golded are history too...

 MV>> Now how many times do I have to tell you: US American is the
 MV>> exception.

 RB> Not here.

Define "here".

 RB>>> Dammit, this is an English-language echo,

 MV>> And so evryone must "Anglify" their names? So why do you not
 MV>> insist on writing my name as "Michael" or "Mike". That *is* the
 MV>> English equivalent you know...

 RB> Because I don't have to use special characters to write your name.

That's pure co‹ncidence. Depending on the definition of "special".

The Dutch 'ch' is not two distinct characters, it is a diphtong that is unique
to the Dutch language. My guess is that from the regulars here, only Ward and
possibly Joe know how to pronounce it without being told. It is almost
unpronounceable for non native Dutch speakers. Try this one:

"Zeven schele geitjes met scheefgegroeide gewrichten, gingen gezellig samen
googelen in Scheveningen".

http://www.vlist.eu/downloads/ZSGEITJE.WAV

That at some point in the distant past, the choice was made to represent the
unique 'ch' with a two letter diphtong, rather then defining a character of its
own for it, is pure "luck". Had it been a character of its own, I would have
been in the same position as Björn.

 RB> Why insist on such ridiculous comparisons when you know very well they
 RB> have nothing to do with the subject?

It is not at all ridiculous and it has everything to do with the subject. My
Ducth name is unpronounceable in English. So is Björn's. Yet you demand that
Björn "Anglifies" his name by writing it as something that is "English" while
you accept my name "as is".

Mind, you I am not an idiot. I *know* my name is upronounceable by almost all
non-Ducth. When in an English speaking environment, I present myself as
"Michael" or "Mike".

However, this is not an English *speaking* environment. We don't talk, we
write. And there is no problem for an English speaker to properly write my
name. And neither should an English speaking person need to have a problem to
properly *write* Björn's name.

The technical problems were solved 15 years ago. All *you* have to do is remove
that automatic translation of ö into oe.


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20070503
 * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)