> > (I agree that it's currently nearly impossible to use computers if one > > isn't familiar with the Latin script, of course.) > > Which probably makes the rest of this discussion academic, unless we're > going to undertake solving *that* problem for Microsoft and the various > UNIX/Linux vendors... It is currently impossible to use the Internet without knowing the Latin script. However, the goal of most well-designed client software and operating systems is to permit the user to work entirely within their native language, with a fully localized system. This is reaching to India and other countries; Microsoft has introduced fully localized versions of Indic Windows just recently, and Linux vendors are hard at work to produce fully localized versions of their software. Email and Web addresses are the big remaining holdouts for most people. People should not be forced to use a script that they are unfamiliar with, just to use email addresses and sites in their own countries. Even if they are familiar with the Latin script, it is very often a very bad match for their languages, making it very difficult to figure out how native words would be spelled in it. Mark
