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Re: A call for arms - the future of Hebrew in the digital age



Before anyone gets all worked out, I'd suggest you take your time,
and check, who signed what with whom. You wouldn't want to start
a holy war based on a tabloid article, now would you.

About proprietary standards: I would like to mention again, to
everyone, that the only true standard there is, these days, for
Hebrew encoding, is the implicit-encoding standard, which is 99%
similar to what Microsoft calls "logical". Read again: There is
no other standard, that has been accepted by any standardizing
body in the world. The implicit encoding is now part of Unicode,
various Internet RFCs, W3C standards, and SII (Standards Institute
of Israel) standards. Future developments in "open" exchange of
Hebrew (and Arabic) will be in this encoding. It is the only way
to go.

Please note that what I've said above is not related to the
recently discussed MS initiative, - much less is it an endorsement
of such.

Doron Shikmoni


>Today, in "Yediot Ahronot" Dudy Goldman (as much as this poor "reporter"
>can be trusted to convey the truth) has posted an article claiming that
>M$ and the Israeli government has signed an agreement by which the
>"Memshal Zamin" (available government?) project will be based on it's
>entirely on M$ products (Explorer, Outlook etc.) and using M$
>proprietary protocols (e.g. It's "logical" hebrew).
>
>This basically means that if you are not buying M$ products (read:
>OS/browser/email client), or stealing them, as most do you will be
>unable to use the services the Israeli government will offer it's
>citizens on the Internet, and the "Memshal Zamin" project aims to offer
>quite a lot.
>
>This state of affairs is, in my eyes, unbearable.
>The israeli government can, of course, choose whatever company it wishes
>to do business with, but whatever protocols are used they must be, so I
>believe, open standards and NOT proprietary software belonging to a big
>american company.
>
>This is especially enraging because the said company own software does
>not support Hebrew in it's products in a respectable manner. (Win95
>Hebrew version is 4 versions and 2 years or so old then the same product
>used around the world and everyone who ever tried to get Word to
>function in Hebrew knows exactly what I am talking about).
>
>I hope to organize some sort of "civilian revolt" against this absurd
>decision. I would really like people on this list to join me. Remember
>that if this plan will go through, Linux (and all other free software -
>e.g. Netscape, is going to have a VERY hard time surviving).
>
>I would really like to hear your responses. I personally believe that
>this is a subject that is on topic on this list, but if not we can find
>another home for this topic. So people, please speak out.
>
>Gilad.
>
>