J örg Knappen commented:
> But I don't expect to have a fully Unicode-aware operating
> system, including Unicode text files and Unicode editors, before about the
> year 2003. Some applications will come earlier (currently I have at least
> partially Unicode aware web browsers and news readers at my hand).
The Metaphor OS was fully Unicode-aware, including Unicode text files
and Unicode editors, in 1994 in released form, and is still in
customers' hands in its follow-on form as the IBM IDS.
The NeXT OS has been fully Unicode-aware, including Unicode text files
and Unicode editors for a number of years, and in its new instantiation
as Rhapsody, will be the core of the Mac OS (everyone cross your
fingers :-) ).
Windows NT has been fully Unicode-aware, including Unicode text files
almost since its inception, and now has Unicode editors available.
This is sitting on my desktop now, in 1997. When Microsoft finally
converges Windows 95 with the Unicode support in NT, this support
should start to be universal for the Windows OS.
A major missing piece in universal Unicode support has been database
support, but the major database vendors are coming online now with
Unicode in the databases.
Granted everything is not as integrated or easy as it should be, but
there is lots of real progress being made right now.
My estimate is that by the end of 1998, Unicode everywhere will start
to become the norm. So unless you are planning to not upgrade your
software for 5 years, you shouldn't have to wait until 2003. ;-)
--Ken Whistler
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:35 EDT