Microsoft Office 97, which MS claims is "unicode-based", whatever that
means, is being released tomorrow. It will likely become the world's
most successful commercial software application, so I'm curious: will
MS-Windows 97 also be "unicode-based"?
I was delighted when MS based WinNT on unicode, then shocked when they
went backwards instead of forward with the release of Win95 a couple of
years later. I heard comments while I was at (the now-defunct) Microsoft
University to the effect that Bill Gates was all broken up about having
to throw unicode overboard, but that they just couldn't squeeze it into
the 4MB machine that was supposedly the minimum requirement for running
Win95.
Since the release of Win95, memory prices have crashed, and I would
suspect that having the same system requirements for Win97 as the
original WinNT had years ago would not be unreasonable. This means that
the "code-page bug" could be "fixed" once and for all.
With Office97, FrontPage97, Visual Basic 5.0, and who knows what else
supposedly "unicode-based", does anyone have any information on the
unicode plans for the operating systems that underlie these apps?
What are the unicode support plans for Win9X, WinCE, and WinNT
(presumably there are still improvements to be made)?
What about their internet-based technologies: Internet Explorer and MS's
implementation of Java?
And, at the risk of sounding like a whiner, how many more years before
PC users get a cheap MS knockoff of the Japanese Language Kit the Mac
had years ago? If it were just for me, I'd just use a Mac, but I have to
deliver CJK script to the PC screens of my US and European customers.
Thanks,
__Glen Perkins__
gperkins@netcom.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:33 EDT