a thought on microsoft...

[MiaKalish@LFP]

It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in
another language.

I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work
in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting
tools for.

To translate all the interfaces and error messages requires rebalancing all
the spaces, double-checking all the "translations", making sure that the
spelling and grammar-checking work right, resequencing the sort mechanism,
and on a good day, redoing piles of graphics.

I think it is a really good idea, and I would be happy if Microsoft had
support for Athapascan, which is more difficult that Romance language
derivatives because there are more characters, and there are those funny
two-character letters, I don't remember what they are called.

So in summary, I can tell you that each individual trying to bring
technological support for each language is near impossible. I am a really,
really good techie, and I can't make it happen by myself. So I am glad
Microsoft is doing this. It is much better than having to have each
individual pay $99-$125 per font, which is decorative, and which can't be
printed using any other fonts.

Producing materials for linguists is one thing. They don't need a lot of
fonts. But People need to be able to have lots of fonts to do invitations,
posters, love letters, business letters, graphical headings for various
things like portfolios, and the fonts need to work on the Internet. Anything
less is not supporting the revitalization efforts.

So Yeah! Microsoft!
But I am interested in what others think, It's Friday. . . . perhaps people
have time to send along a thought.

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM
Subject: a thought on microsoft...


> Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of
> "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours
> languages and spits them out in code.
>
> phil cash cash
> UofA
>
>