Subject: PCS: {[Parochial] [Partial-octet]} Coded Character Set (-;

From: [email-masked]
Date: 27 Sep 94 00:53:00 -0500

----------
While some are making their best to internationalize the world, perhaps Internet
too, some do their best to limit it to a parish... (see the pearl in annex).

Thanks Johan, for that precious info which looks parochial at first glance.

But after the first shock the idea is not so foolish, perhaps even genial, as it
would make sure everybody would have to use a non-existing coding scheme to
transmit the UCS on the Internet (including the Internet addresses), a bit like
some teams I am in are used to TRANISCI to transmit full IBM 850 (256 chars)
texts throughout the world (even the USA).  These texts can be read
without a decoder, but are of course more elegant with one.  [TRANISCI was built
for private use but I wish some day we have a TRANIUCS].  The main problem with
email is assuming we live in an ideal world, which we know will never be true.
Coding in making sure we will be limited by the weakest node is an approach
similar to the invention of binary transmissions to counter the threats of a
real analog world.  In this sense even the IRV is not small enough indeed.

Btw TRANISCI, thanks to Ren<e'> Haentjens (whose documentation on this is quite
rich), was rebuilt with telecom-mailer-proof character encoding, a set much
smaller than the IRV (to care about EBCDIC/ASCII wrong conversions and also a
lot of restrictions of the *real* world with which we're gonna live for a
while).

Perhaps once we'll have a UTF-7 which will be
telecom-mailer-C-language+UNIX+POSIX proof too and we'll be able to transmit the
whole UCS the same way anywhere in the world (those without a decoder will have
no other choice to implement it as it won't break anything).

Alain LaBont<e'>
Secr<e'>tariat du Conseil du tr<e'>sor
Gouvernement du Qu<e'>bec
Qu<e'>bec

Message original:
==============================================================================
         A: RNET (SC22 LIST <[email-masked]>), ALB
        De: RNET ([email-masked])
     Objet: (SC22.604) invariant part of 646
      Date: lun 26 sep 94
     Heure: 18:13 TU
      Type: Mail
 Livraison: Reguliere
==============================================================================
Dear Colleagues
At the SC22 plenary last week a document DH 11R2 was discussed, with
a proposal to restrict E-mail text to the characters of the so-called
invariant part of ISO/IEC 646. This would mean that full ASCII is not
permitted. However, Brian Meek is using the square brackets in his
mails, and I never heard a protest about that. It would also exclude
the COMMERCIAL AT, used in E-mail addresses with Internet. Are some
people more popish than the Pope?
To test your receiving facilities I attach here a list of characters
prohibited. Could anyone who does not receive one correctly send a
message to this list?
I am typing this text here on a terminal which codes my letters with
EBCDIC, which also seems not be allowed anymore. Of course I had to
take some precautions, because for square brackets I have to type
hex codes (shown correctly on my screen as brackets), and NOT SIGN for
CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT.

Best regards from J. W. van Wingen
[email-masked] or [email-masked]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 COMPLETE REPERTOIRE OF GRAPHIC CHARACTERS NOT INCLUDED   1994-09-26
 IN THE INVARIANT PART OF ISO/IEC 646:1991              J. W. van Wingen

                              Sorted to code
  char. SID    Name                                           ISO 8859
                                                               Part     Code
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   #   SM01   NUMBER SIGN                                     0......    02/03
   $   SC03   DOLLAR SIGN                                     0......    02/04
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   @   SM05   COMMERCIAL AT                                   0......    04/00
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [   SM06   LEFT SQUARE BRACKET                             0......    05/11
   \   SM07   REVERSE SOLIDUS                                 0......    05/12
   ]   SM08   RIGHT SQUARE BRACKET                            0......    05/13
   ^   SD15   CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT                               0......    05/14
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   `   SD13   GRAVE ACCENT                                    0......    06/00
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   {   SM11   LEFT CURLY BRACKET                              0......    07/11
   |   SM13   VERTICAL LINE                                   0......    07/12
   }   SM14   RIGHT CURLY BRACKET                             0......    07/13
   ~   SD19   TILDE                                           0......    07/14
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------