Re: Vista english version : handling chinese characters?
"Stephan Rose" <nospam@spammer.com> wrote ...
> Honestly I find Microsoft multi-language support to be pathetic...
> I mean seriously, the ability to choose my OS language is an Ultimate
> Extra???
I tend to agree. I've argued about language matters with program managers at
Microsoft till I'm almost in tears of frustration, because they don't get
it. Windows isn't just a commercial "product" - for better or worse, it's a
major cultural artifact: the tool which billions of people around the world
use every day to record their thoughts and ideas, communicate with others,
conduct business, run countries, make laws, fall in love, teach their
children, practice their religion, and so on. Windows is the clay tablet and
stylus of the modern age; it's our quill and parchment, our pencil and
paper. And yet ... often, we are forced to communicate in a bizarre dialect
of American English, because that's the only language available. For those
Microsoft guys, the only concern is to maximize returns for Microsoft
shareholders*, not to provide cultural resources for the world. Unlike the
clay tablet, or pen ink and paper, Windows is controlled by a single
commercial company, focused solely on profit. So we have reached a unique
inflexion point in human history.
Because of its malleability, software could be a wonderful tool for
preserving and enhancing linguistic diversity, and fostering cross-lingual
communication. But for the sake of a few lousy bucks, modern software has
become the opposite: a tool for language death. If I, as an English-speaking
Australian, feel linguistically alienated from Windows, how must non-English
speakers feel??
So, I'm reluctant to defend Microsoft on this matter. But I must point out a
couple of considerations:
- very few other major software vendors are any better; and many are worse.
I'm thinking of IBM, Oracle, Sun, Adobe, and even Apple. They have pluses
and minuses, but none are startlingly, significantly better at international
and multilingual stuff than Microsoft. Only open source provides a
significant boost in Internationalisation abilities (but, then there are
other considerations there). And, Microsoft has made considerable
improvements in internationalisation, especially in the last 10 years (ie,
they've gone from execrably appalling, to merely bad 
.
- Vista made a big leap over XP, Server 2003 etc. In previous versions of
Windows, the basic product was compiled in English; then other languages
were installed on top of the English stuff to create foreign language
versions of Windows. In Vista, the base Windows is built using a kind of
nonsense, neutral language, with strings that don't mean anything to anyone.
Then they apply an MUI on top of that, to give it a language. So in Vista,
English is an equal partner alongside Japanese, German, Greek etc; made by
installing an English MUI onto the neutral base. During the Vista Beta there
was a class of bugs where you'd suddenly find a string of Klingon-looking
text in a menu or dialogue box; this was a place where the MUI overlay had
not replaced the underlying text. Among other problems, this helped solve
those bugs where message box text would be cut off, because dialogue boxes
where scaled to suit English text; and the like.
Microsoft's LIP program is an excellent step forward in adding linguistic
diversity to Windows. But unfortunately, it is still too tightly controlled
and overly bureaucratic. I wanted to develop a Scottish Gaelic LIP for
Vista - a language which is recognised as an official national language by
the Scottish Government, and is actively taught at primary, secondary and
tertiary levels in Scotland and other countries. But, short of an official
request from the UK Government with funding etc, Microsoft did not wish to
open up the programme to a community group or individual. So, no Gaelic for
Windows. (Gnome, Firefox etc are of course available in Gaelic editions, and
anyone can translate an open source app).
Paul Randall wrote ...
> I've often wondered how much of the Windows bloat everyone
> talks about is due to Windows internationalization, and how
> much that effort affects the world.
Well, as you can tell by now, I am an advocate for greater
Internationalisation, not less I don't believe the bloat in Vista comes
from better support for multiple languages. But to the extent that
multilingual abilities adds "bloat", it is a necessary tax, which should
have been paid from day one. In fairness I don't believe American software
companies are uniquely narrow-minded in this regard. I've heard a senior
Australian IT manager, who I otherwise respect, complain long and loud about
Unicode, and that "all of us" (who, exactly?) are being held ransom by a
"minority" of double-byte character set users. I'm not a great or prolific
programmer; but in my own experience, developing Unicode applications is a
joy, compared to developing an application which needs to be codepage-aware.
Cheers,
* to declare my interest, I do own shares in Microsoft, as well as several
other tech companies. But I'd happily forego a few dividends, for better
multilingual support in Microsoft products.
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au