[KS] The Mystery of the Breve

[Frank Hoffmann]

>Just because it is in Unicode doesn't mean you 
>can actually use it in a given web application,


Please point out why not so. I see no reason why 
this would not be possible, other than, as 
pointed out, in outdated scripts.

>(his email, by the way, was encoded in EUC-KR, 
>one of the "outdated" encodings that was 
>predicted to go away ten years ago).


It was perhaps not predicted to "go away" -- it 
was, I think, predicted to be an unnecessary. And 
that it is. Still, this is no good example for 
your point: anyone using email programs that use 
Unicode encoding will also be able to read EUC-KR 
mails, as EUC-KR would simply be one of the 
several encoding tables in most if not every 
email program.


>"will go away within the next couple of years" 
>was something we heard a lot in 1999.   Ten 
>years have gone by, and not much has changed.


That is simply an incorrect statement, Otfried. 
The *very* large majority of Internet scripts 
(message boards, mailing lists like this one) and 
other programs (e.g. text processors) -- and 
probably close to 100% of the popular ones -- are 
using Unicode now.


>If you don't believe me, please make a test, and 
>try ordering something from the web to an 
>address in Korea.  I have never found a site 
>that would accept McC-R in its proper form.


Good point, but invalid point in a technical 
sense: the problem here is the same on a 
technical level as the one regarding the two 
transcription systems on a usage (or what better 
to call it? educational?) level:  There is NO 
technical reasons why those web forms and scripts 
should not work with Unicode characters such as 
the brève characters, HOWEVER, the owners and web 
designers for these sites simply stick to 
outdated code. It takes them near to no time to 
change this in the preferences or page headers, 
if they just wanted to. Please do not mix up 
issues here: TECHNIALLY there are no problems. 
But if someone prefers to use walk instead using 
a bike, then that does not mean bikes have 
technical problems.


>   (You _can_ type a breve into amazon.com's 
>address form, but it's displayed as garbage on 
>the confirmation page, and I never had the 
>courage to see if the package would arrive 
>nevertheless).  Try filling in an entry 
>application for Australia or the US on the web, 
>or a similar administrative site.


Same as above. These hangovers will disappear as 
time goes by. Take some Advil in the meantime.


>...in the Netherlands a few years ago, I found 
>that their administrative system could not 
>handle umlauts, and so they had to type AE 
>instead of Ä.  And this in a European country 
>where diacritics are used!

Yes, and in the 2nd grade of primary school I 
wrote "school" with one "o" and there may still 
be kids doing that now, and so we better should 
not implement orthography rules? (Unfortunately 
they are already implemented).


>So, in my opinion, Koreans deserve a 
>romanization system that only uses the letters 
>a-z, just like everybody else.

Fine, if this is your opinion -- just please do 
not mix this argument up with technical issues 
that have already been resolved.


Greetings,
Frank

-- 
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Frank Hoffmann
http://koreaweb.ws