Time for 8 bit news, isn't it? - Haven't got the slightest

[Edward Vielmetti]

In article <1092 at mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de> p576spz at mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (S.Petra Zeidler) writes:

   Even eunet, which is a LOT more conscient of the existance of other
   languages, has chosen English for common language, simply because
   it is the most widely understood; on dnet (German news net) you'll
   get flamed for not posting in German unless it's a crosspost.
   Writing German with the English (American) character set is a pain.

I'm getting a full feed of dnet.* and sub.* (the German groups) so
I've tried to follow the interminable discussions about how Umlauts
should be represented on those groups.  So you can get flamed for
any number of reasons, not just choice of langauge.  

When dnet and sub start sending around umlauts encoded as iso 8859-1,
I'll make an effort to install software that accomodates them.   

   Writing French or some Scandinavian language must be a major pain.

The French just got rid of a few diacritics, didn't they?

   To what amounts would the cost of changing to 8 bit be ?  Would it
   be the transition of maintenance barely affordable to not
   affordable ??

I don't think the change would be too substantial for the news transport
software.   The news readers, esp. people using 7-bit terminals or
terminal emulators, might need more hard work.

--Ed

Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept <emv at math.lsa.umich.edu>
comp.archives moderator