Readers new to Masataka Ohta's comments should know that they are
extremely controversial and do not actually represent the opinion of the
Japanese.
What? Can you explain why Japanese comittee vote AGAINST DIS 10646-1.2?
Because my opinion is typical in Japan.
Several Japanese companies have in fact embraced ISO 10646.
I am a member of some committee on 10646 issues in Japan.
As far as I know, all experts in Japanese branches of American companies
(including those who support Unicode) think DIS 10646-1.2 is unusable as
an internationalized character code set.
All I have is old details on this, so others closer to the Japanese home
market should be able to cite the appropriate references and product
announcements.
It is not impossible to make a product with DIS 10646-1.2 for JAPANESE
and EUROPEAN MARKET ONLY.
It is not impossible to make a product with DIS 10646-1.2 for CHINESE
and EUROPEAN MARKET ONLY, either.
But, if you want to sell some product both in Japan and China,
you must eventually make 2 versions of the products and switch them
by HAND.
Then, if you want to process Japanese language while in China with
the product, you must switch it again by HAND.
BTW, it is perfectly possible to make a product with ISO 2022 for both
Japanese and Chinese market without switching.
This has been a public service broadcat, brought to you by one disgusted
standards tracker with insufficient diplomatic skills to shut up.
I really hope your technical skill is as good as your diplomatic skill.
Interested readers are
advised to visit the archives of ISO10646 at JHUVM.BITNET.
It should be noted that ISO10646 mailling list in JHUVM is heavily
polluted by Unicoders. Several people (most are non-Japanese) made
rational comment on technical problems of Unicode and just neglected.
Thus, now, the mailling list is habitted by Unicoders only.
Masataka Ohta