Dear Harry,

My response is a bit late...

On Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:32:23 -0400, "Wagner,Harry" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ULIS (http://www.dl.ulis.ac.jp/DCML/DCML.html) appears to have taken three
> different approaches, based on the level of browser support. If the browser
> supports the language font they produce the appropriate unicode (this is
> what the registry prototype does now). If the browser does not support the
> language, but supports Java then they produce the translation using a Java
> applet. If neither of these apply they display a graphic (.gif or .jpg).
>
> My view is that the browser support for languages has matured enough that we
> can expect our users to be using a browser that supports their language.
> Both Netscape and IE provide this function, and are both free. I am hoping
> we can discuss this during the conference call this morning.

As I mentioned in my previous message to you and CCed to DC-REGISTRY,
the ULIS registry has two versions. The URL referred above is our very
first version. In the second version, we are using Unicode as its
underlying character encoding scheme.

In the second version, we provide a simple search function using Uniode
and XML/XSL.
This function is based on simple text matching on Unicode.
Global IME on Windows is useful to input text for this function, for example.

Unicode is useful but it solves only very basic part of the multilingual
issues. For example, how do you distinguish German "Titel", Dutch "Titel",
and Swedish "Titel"?
In this sense, an attribute to explicitly identify a language is
essential.

Multilingual User Interface is also important. However, in our practical
environment, I think there is no good straightforward solution. Collaboration
by native speakers of many languages on the Net seems to be the best way
to develop MLUI for the registry from my experience and perspective...

Cheers,

-- Shigeo