the language

[Patricia Chaput]

        While I don't agree that messages in Cyrillic should be
dumped, let's please remember that not everyone has the resources, time,
and technical support needed to solve font-related problems.  The
technology is not perfect, solutions that work in one situation cannot
always be reliably translated to a new situation.  For all of the
successes there  are many failures and many hours of frustration.  Even
the experts can be stumped ("This should work; I don't know why it
doesn't"). Moreover, let's remember that for those individuals without
extensive expertise, the quote I've appended below might as well be an
unknown foreign language.
        It's not yet time to disdain those who haven't solved all of the
technology-related problems.  Let's use common sense:  If you want your
message to be understood by all members of the list, use transliteration.
If you use Cyrillic, you've narrowed your audience.  If you want to use
Cyrillic as the "appropriate" font for a Slavic list, or if you want to
exert pressure on others to catch up technologically, then that is your
choice.  But let's not pretend that these are simple problems to solve.
Perhaps simple for some, but not for others.  Let's also remember that the
purpose of this list is to share information.  The font we use, or whether
we use this list at all--these are all choices that affect how widely
our information is shared.
        For my part, I would like to express gratitude for all of the
information, including technology-related information that is beyond me.
Although the formulation below isn't comprehensible to everyone,
those of us with access to technical support can show it to
someone who might be able to help. Eventually these problems will be
solved and we will all "get there."  In the meantime let's be tolerant.

[Quote from a previous message:]
As for the techncial concern, one of serveral alternatives to read my
email - a telnet session to a Unix server where I use elm, a
Win95/Eudora Lite 3.0.5 combination, Linux 2.0.35 w/ Netscape 4.7 as my
email client - no problems in seeing the postings in their alphabet of
choice.

Those who need some links as to how to configure their systems can start
here:
http://www.brama.com/compute - you'll find a some guides for PCs and
Macs; maybe someday I'll add my two cents to the Linux Cyrillic HOWTO
on how I've got Linux system setup - one telnet setup w/ a KOI8 font,
one w/ a CP1251 font, running Accelerated-X for my X-server which has a
nifty True Type Font server, enabling me to use all of my eight bit
Cyrillic TTFs.  [end quote]

Pat Chaput

*********************************************************
Patricia R. Chaput
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street
Harvard University, Cambridge, Ma. 02138
Dept. telephone: (617) 495-4065; fax (617) 496-4466
E-mail:  chaput at fas.harvard.edu