It's Ravi Message
Hello List,
I have been following this list for a while. I am a recent contributor on
Wikipedia and have followed Unicode developments in my country ever since
1997. I can tell here that
my.wikipedia.org works, there is hardly anything
wrong with it (just a few bugs with Normalization). The only reason there
is resistance there in regards to fonts is simply because people do not like
change. Trying to find technical reasons for Zawgyi would be simply naive. I
agree that Unicode 5.1 would not work easily on older machines. I do not
have any stastical data, but I can assert that about 90% of users in Myanmar
are on Windows XP (Service Pack 2). ICafes are also very friendly towards
it's customers and are willing to allow installation of software. I live
here. I know what I am talking about. So what other reason are there not to
go 5.1?
I have a question for Mr. Everson. Why do you say that my.wikipedia doesn't
work and is broken? The only thing that was needed was a slight change in
the CSS. The only reason all this war broke up was becuase Htoo Myint Naung
resisted to change the CSS to allow inclusion of other Fonts. Also, Mr.
Everson why do you allude to the notation that other Unicode 5.1 just might
not be compliant? If there are problems with these fonts, just spell it out.
Even assuming there are problems, I still think it shold be included.
Because we want a hihgly inclusive process in Wikipedia. The older CSS (not
the current one) made Wikipedia pretty much exclusive. The whole problem is
I believe our people resist too much to change. Our task here is therefore
to actually start promoting the use of Unicode like Victor mentioned. I have
done my part in the country here promoting it. I have brought users to
Wikipedia and asked the to start converting the older articles. I am doing
that myself. I would not like to see the community split. And I believe it
won't. Non Unicode fonts are about to become irrelevant soon, except in
niche markets. One of the reason why strong protest started.
I am however sad that contributors were not asked to join this list. Hintha,
Zawthet, me, Fox and a few other's opinion should have been taken. We could
have given the view from the trench. Had Okisan not mentioned about this
list on MyanmarITPros I would not have kown about it. Well, let's all call
it a day now and move on and make Wikipedia grow.
Love,
Ravi.