RE: [tlug] katakana

["legend" <fukudam@example.com>]

> > The unofficial reason for including it was that if
> > it wasn't done, there would have been roaring about cultural 
> > imperialism, since half-width katakana is as essential a part of 
> > Life-In-Japan as sushi, sashimi and barfing in the gutter.
> 
> Do you have any references for that?  Would be an interesting 
> read.  Or is this just more Japan bashing?

I am not an expert like Jim Breen, so I can't give you 
a good reference. But from the user perspective
(and experience), half-width katakana is not a widely
used standard. Pretty much in any application
(especially internet mail), it's not recommended
to be used.

I personally don't use it because of the fact it may
get corrupted in various applications, and I'd never
really had a need for it.

Of course, there are exceptions especially in legacy
applications. Such as Japanese version of SAP R/3.
Search string has to be input in half-width katakana.

And I haven't used it personally, but I've heard some
NEC or Fujitsu mainframe uses half-width katakana 
in their version of Cobol (it's all coded in Japanese).
Can you imagine coding Cobol in half-width katakana?
(^^;;

I don't really feel the need of it, but I guess some
ppl would still want it for compatibility. I'm not sure
if there's a cultural thing as the reason. Maybe the 
infamous 2-Channel ppl would have some say in it, 
since their ascii art makes use of half-width 
katakana. lol

On the other hand, Kanji does have some cultural
issues. One kanji char may have a couple different
types of glyph, and some ppl want to retain both.
That I can understand. Unifying them to one glyph
also means ancient scripts cannot be saved in 
electronic format.


-mune