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Date: Sun 09-May-1989 00:52:25 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages In addition, NeXT has not attempted to tackle the significant problems of handling languages like Chinese (very large number of ideographs), Japanese (mixed writing wsystems), Hebrew (right to left text), or Arabic languages (variable letter forms). Apple has incorporated basic routines for handing different "scripts" into its toolbox, and is slowly making progress towards a truly multilingual computer (new versions of TextEdit will handle multiple scripts within the same body of text). In particular, Apple has system software that allows ordinary macs to use any of the above mentioned languages (although some word-processing software written without using the recent toolbox routines is not completely compatible). I was disappointed that NeXT did not share the same goals. While the problems of providing large character sets in postscript are not trivial, and perhaps postscript fonts for some of these languages still do not exist, I think an early effort to support multibyte character sets would have been worthwhile. Just as working in grayscale eases the transition to color, working with multibyte fonts would ease the transition to multilingual user interfaces. As it is it looks to be a long time coming. Doug Felt >From: izumi@violet.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa)
Date: Sun 09-May-1989 01:32:50 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages In article <10459@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> grahamr@prism.cs.orst.edu (Robert Graham) writes: >I think that NeXT is a prime example why we have such a large trade >imbalance. As far as I can tell, they are not concentrating on the >foriegn market at all, which is a big mistake. Universities in Aw, give them a break. I am sure they will sell their machines overseas when the time comes. Contrary to your suggestion, I consider NeXT to be a prime example of what Americans should be proud of. >How about foriegn language fonts? (i.e. >Japanese hirigana, katakana, and kanji; Russian) I am hoping that I can just buy nice Kanji fonts for DPS from Adobe, and just load-and-go. I know Apple sells a version of their LaserWriter NTX with built-in Kanji fonts in Japan. If DPS supports Kanji, then it shouldn't take any changes to whatever NeXT does on top of DPS. Perhaps, Glenn can comment on this? >Rob. >grahamr@ccmail.ucs.orst.edu >grahamr@prism.cs.orst.edu Izumi Ohzawa, izumi@violet.berkeley.edu >From: phil@mit-amt (Phil Sohn)
Date: Sun 09-May-1989 12:09:46 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages Let's all remember that it was years before Apple introduced anything having to do with foriegn markets, and most of the foriegn system software (KanjiTalk, at least) is not even running under 6.0 yet! NeXT has not even started shipping released units yet. Lets give them a little time and see what they turn up. >From: jmunkki@kampi.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Date: Sun 09-May-1989 11:06:55 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages In article <10459@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> grahamr@prism.cs.orst.edu (Robert Graham) writes: >I think that NeXT is a prime example why we have such a large trade >imbalance. As far as I can tell, they are not concentrating on the >foriegn market at all, which is a big mistake. Universities in I just got a letter saying that they are trying to get an export license to Finland and that they would reconsider my Reg. Dev. Prog. application again when they get it. I guess they are having problems with COCOM. I think it is safe to say that the NeXT cube is high technology. _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._ | Juri Munkki jmunkki@hut.fi jmunkki@fingate.bitnet I Want Ne | | Helsinki University of Technology Computing Centre My Own XT | ^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ >From: jgreely@previous.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely)
Date: Sun 09-May-1989 15:48:21 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages Computer and Information Science In article <10459@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> grahamr@prism.cs.orst.edu (Robert Graham) writes: >I think that NeXT is a prime example why we have such a large trade >imbalance. As far as I can tell, they are not concentrating on the >foriegn market at all, which is a big mistake. 1) The NeXT machine is not out yet. 2) NeXT is a very young company. Attempting to aggressively market world-wide immediately sounds like financial suicide. 3) Take a good look at the cube. Check the power supply. It's designed to be dropped in just about anywhere in the world. NeXT may not be ready to market abroad now, but they haven't ignored the future. > The >school I went to (University of Stuttgart), had Sun 3 workstations >on most CS professors desks, and a Cray 2 squirrelled away somewhere >on campus Wow. Sounds just like Ohio State. You've done a pretty good job of describing our environment, and we most emphatically do *not* have "gobs of liquid cash" (and the Cray's not ours, but it's scheduled to become a Y-MP soon). > Students can't earn >less than about $7 per hour (there are lots of jobs at that wage), Well, you *were* describing us. [stuff about foreign language support] I have as yet seen nothing on foreign language dictionaries or word processing, but that means nothing. I suggest contacting a sales type and getting the latest third-party information (mine's already several months out of date). "Who's it *this* time?" "Concert promoters who have gone broke organizing charity benefit concerts. We call it Aid Aid." -=- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely) >From: sbrunnoc@hawk.ulowell.edu (Sean Brunnock)
Date: Sun 09-May-1989 21:44:01 From: Unknown Subject: Re: Foriegn markets and Languages >From article <10459@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>, by grahamr@prism.cs.orst.edu (Robert Graham): From the Nov. 1988 issue of Byte magazine: The nonswitching power supply can handle voltages ranging anywhere from 90 volts to 260 V, and frequencies from 50 Hz to 60 Hz. This means that you can plug in the hardware almost anywhere in the world without without having to set switches. > Maybe we have a $150 trade deficit because countries like Japan and > Germany (which now have stronger economies than us) think first "can we > sell it in america?" and the US thinks first "can we sell it > in america?" :) America is the largest purchaser of computers inthe world. It is also the biggest exporter. You yourself point out that a European university had a Sun for every professor and a Cray II. It is too my understanding that the Japanese are largely computer illiterate. Students use abacuses more than they use computers. Furthermore, I simply don't see any Japanese or German computers where I work. Do you know anyone who has purchased a Sony workstation? Sean Brunnock >From: jgreely@previous.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely)
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