Hmm.. Let's back up 20 years.
Let's back 8 up years. The development of the universal multi-octet
code just started within ISO/IEC JTC1 SC2/WG2. After many years of tremendous
efforts finally a multi-octet code was adopted by 80% of ISO voting
members as ISO 10 646 with an intention to replace the 7-bit ASCII -
ISO 646.
Hmmm... let's back up 500 years. Folks decided litigation by seeing
which side could come up with more supporters. And countries decided
issues with armies.
The details may be different, but saying that a technology is good
just because umpteen big, bureaucratic companies send umpteen "goers"
to umpteen meetings where umpteen votes are held, bears the same
degree of validity.
The phone companies have gone through hell and high water to preserve
the copper investment in the local loops (the result being ISDN.)
Why are we (networking *and* software) unwilling to bear the same to
keep the nearly equal investment in 8-bit character sets?
I'm also not particulary fond of things which will double my time to
move textual data.
--karl--