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Subject:
From:
Hans Aberg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 18 Feb 2001 17:02:19 +0100
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At 11:51 +0100 2001/02/18, Javier Bezos wrote:
>>  Since we have been asked to provide input encoding changes for LaTeX within
>>  paragraphs, eg for individual words, something like this would happen
>>if such
>>  a change appears, say, inside the argument of \section.
>
>A system to coordinate preprocess and "internal" process is necessary.

The way I thought of it, the preprocessor should be able to handle mixed
encodings. -- Thus, the extended TeX (and LaTeX) only sees Unicode
characters, and nothing else.

Also, I think that the use of multiple encodings in a single file is a
pretty transitory thing: MacOS X, released in a regular version the next
month supports Unicode fully -- so the access to editors able to handle
Unicode will happen pretty soon (no more than a few years), as the
availability on personal computers will push the developments a great deal.
And the reason for using multiple encodings is probably the result of the
lack of editors that can handle Unicode.

So, I do not think it matters if one uses a seemingly complicated system,
with additional files specifying encoding for now: People will probably
soon want to be able to translate their multiple encoding files to single
Unicode encoding files instead. (If you formerly wrote files with a mixture
of say Russian and Latin encodings, where it was only possible to see the
correct renderings by changing the settings of the editor, then when you
get hold of a Unicode editor, the first thing that you would want is to not
having the bother of changing the settings of the editor all the time.
Thus, you would want a convenient way of converting your old files to
Unicode so that your new editor can read them. Therefore it is best if
these old mixed encodings files already have a markup that admits an easy
conversion to Unicode.)

It is always difficult to judge the future, but, well, this is my guess.

  Hans Aberg

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