The average computer user might think that the number of languages their operating system supports is pretty long. OSX supports 22 languages, and Microsoft claims to support 96, but they're counting different regional dialects multiple times. But there are over 6000 languages, and though many of them are spoken by a dwindling few, there are some languages that are spoken by millions of people that are supported very poorly, if at all, by computer operating systems. The reason for the support being poor is that the people who speak those languages are poor, and are not good "markets." It's only because of the efforts of a few dedicated people that computing support for languages such as Burmese, Sinhalese, Pali, Cambodian, and Lao have been as good as they are, but the trends for the future are not good.
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Member since:2005-07-06
But surely Apple isn't the same company as back then...
They were pretty much the first with thorough and sane support for Polish alphabet (versus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazovia_encoding simply exchanging similarly looking letters in firmwares, in original DOS code page, Ł instead of £ for example; to be fair, pretty much the only approach without access to source code; contributed to rarity of PL keyboards - we mostly just use US keyboard, right Alt as AltGr in combination with original Latin letter for diacritics).
And afterwards also with the first, IIRC, properly localised OS - when not only Macintoshes were prohibitively expensive (relatively, here; think in the range of annual salary), severely limiting their potential market, but also possibly still under CoCom embargo (as all 32-bit CPUs, I believe), at least formally. Also pretty much the only computers equipped often with PL keyboards.
That was of course relatively simple, compared to the issues from the article - "just" adding diacritics to few Latin letters, and quite straightforward translation into similarly structured script (mostly by some members of the relatively large Polish diaspora, I guess).
Still - yeah, why? Wishing to quickly take over DTP in then-emerging markets? (or education some time later, where proper localisation and keyboards were undoubtedly desirable; though there was possibly more behind that choice... http://www.osnews.com/thread?489120 - from 3rd section, "Furthermore")
Maybe also to accommodate the needs of diaspora?
Anyway, now they are a company which openly states their aversion to target "lesser" poor people, aims for the "premium" ones...
Member since:2011-06-03
"why was language support so much better on older Mac OSes than now"
Profiteering. As Thom already said, it takes paid workers to do all this stuff. In an effort to make another dollar, Apple is allowing this to happen. Their mantra of "Our way or the highway" pretty much sums it up. They already know what you want and they are giving it to you.
Member since:2009-07-18
Why was the OS X support better? Well didn't you hear: "Mac's OSX is now in its creaking (error-ridden) final years".
Huh? It's significantly more stable and well tuned for multi-core/multi-processor work thanks to the great Snow Leopard release. Lion not so much... But there are a whole lot more creaking, error-ridden languages out there, and it sounds like some of them may be dead before OSX.
Anyway, I agree, the more relevant question would have been why they have been dropped from OS X and whether these areas can somehow promote the inclusion of their languages in OS releases. Given the likely lack of economic incentives and presumably (at least in the case of OS X which is targeted to Apple hardware) lower user base thanks to at least marginally higher cost, it's maybe more surprising the support for these languages has lasted as long as it did. There's a fair bit of extra overhead to keep those languages up to date, not to mention support for more esoteric character handling.
Very cool to see a mention of Hawaiian self-determination though. The U.S. history of treatment of the Philippines, Hawaii, etc. are truly disturbing, especially given how little of it is explained in the U.S. education system. Of course the Japanese attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, but... Hey, that wasn't actually part of America. How did a U.S. naval base end up there? How about in the Philippines? Fun stuff - so much dirty history that gets glossed over if mentioned at all.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run."There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Member since:
2006-12-06
the world is much larger than the nations that produce comic books that are read by computer programmers.
Oh no you di''n't!
But seriously, fascinating article. Although I do feel it missed an opportunity, namely: why was language support so much better on older Mac OSes than now?
The implication in the article is that it isn't commercially interesting to Apple to support them. But surely living languages like Burmese or Khmer are more commercially viable now than in the 1980s, not less.
Maybe there's some greying ex-Apple employee who could be tracked down to offer the straight dope. Was the greater support back then the result of financial support? Some technical issue? A senior employee who just had a love of languages?
Fingers crossed for such a follow-up