Another strange mailing from the ISO8859 list.  I note that I always
seem to get these aberrations from BYUADMIN.  Warning, there are
unprintable characters at the start of what follows.  I note that I
always seem to get these aberrations from BYUADMIN.  Do you think
there's a chance that something is flaky with their server or might
there be something flaky in the setup of this particular list?
 
/June
 
To:  LSTSRV-L(LSTSRV-L@POLYGRAF)
 
FORWARDED MESSAGE 04/05/88 08:44 FROM [log in to unmask]:
 
INMR02
A

Dear list subscribers
Mr. Melcher's letter raises some important points, which are not yet
answered in a satisfactory way. The primary question is: Should the
EBCDIC/ISO8859 conversion table be either code to code, or graphic to
graphic? If the second is chosen, as Mr. Melcher seems to do, there are
serious consequences:
-- separate and different tables for Western Europe, Eastern Europe,
Greece, Turkey, Israel, and the Arabic countries.
-- necessary change of a table (not only the code page), as soon as ISO
makes modification in a part of 8859 (in which they are completely free
in doing).
-- other persisting complexities with national character sets as shown
in Mr. Melcher's letter.
 
What we need is a stable and uniform conversion table (that can be
implemented into hardware), independent of the meaning of the bytes in
any national environment. Code pages can vary, according to local need.
Such a table exists just now, (and from about 1972), and should be
changed only after proper justification has been given (which I have not
seen as yet). It has been suggested that CP500 was necessary for
including all the 8859-1 characters. This is NOT true. Distribution can
be done according to the present table. We should realize that changing
the table could result in a number of very expensive modifications,
without diminishing confusion at all. I hope that the matter will be
discussed thoroughly at the next SEAS meeting in Davos which I am not
able to attend.
Yours faithfully, Johan van Wingen