Unicode

[wraper]

What about EE's in Mexico and South-America? Russia? The Middle-East?

Do you realize there are tons of components with names using Cyrillic and datasheets in Russian only? In the past you couldn't write such part number properly, and adding picture did not help much as people wouldn't be able to type them in the search anyway. Say, ЭКР1568ХА2 or КТ361Б, even P and X are not what you may think. They are completely different letters and same looking Latin letters won't work for search.

How does that help an EE in Mexico? Or Brazil?

Simply. Someone acquired Russian made device which needs repair (I've seen many cases of this). That someone has two choices, ask for help to find the components and documentation, just typing component name in Russian is already a great help. Second choice is to forget about the repair.

[Karel]

What about EE's in Mexico and South-America? Russia? The Middle-East?

Do you realize there are tons of components with names using Cyrillic and datasheets in Russian only? In the past you couldn't write such part number properly, and adding picture did not help much as people wouldn't be able to type them in the search anyway. Say, ЭКР1568ХА2 or КТ361Б, even P and X are not what you may think. They are completely different letters and same looking Latin letters won't work for search.

How does that help an EE in Mexico? Or Brazil?

Simply. Someone acquired Russian made device which needs repair (I've seen many cases of this). That someone has two choices, ask for help to find the components and documentation, just typing component name in Russian is already a great help. Second choice is to forget about the repair.

I see. And what about electronic engineers who actually design stuff? Should they be able to read basic english?
Because that is what I intended to ask.

[wraper]

I see. And what about electronic engineers who actually design stuff? Should they be able to read basic english?
Because that is what I intended to ask.

If it is Russian engineer who is designing military stuff, I perfectly see having no issue without a knowledge of English. In any case, I've seen many (actually most) fairly intelligent people there who either don't know English at all or know very poorly.

[IanB]

What you are talking about is confirmation bias. Sure you were taking with people who speak english to some extent. Because those who don't won't speak/work with you, to begin with.

It may also be because I am not an EE. I work in a branch of engineering that involves lots of international business dealings and world-wide travel. English is the lingua franca of international commerce. If one of my German colleagues meets with one of my French colleagues, they will speak English together. Similarly with my Japanese colleagues, my Chinese colleagues, my Latin American colleagues. It is how the world works. People will of course switch to Chinese if they are both comfortable with the language, otherwise they will converse in English.

[wraper]

What you are talking about is confirmation bias. Sure you were taking with people who speak english to some extent. Because those who don't won't speak/work with you, to begin with.

It may also be because I am not an EE. I work in a branch of engineering that involves lots of international business dealings and world-wide travel. English is the lingua franca of international commerce. If one of my German colleagues meets with one of my French colleagues, they will speak English together. Similarly with my Japanese colleagues, my Chinese colleagues, my Latin American colleagues. It is how the world works. People will of course switch to Chinese if they are both comfortable with the language, otherwise they will converse in English.

If you meet some average Joe in Japan, China or even Russia, especially outside of major cities, you'll have pretty slim chance to have even barely meaningful talk in English.

[IanB]

If you meet some average Joe in Japan, China or even Russia, especially outside of major cities, you'll have pretty slim chance to have even barely meaningful talk in English.

Of course, but again you are being deliberately obtuse. We are not talking about average Joe's, we are talking about professional engineers engaged in international business and commerce, as you well know.

[wraper]

If you meet some average Joe in Japan, China or even Russia, especially outside of major cities, you'll have pretty slim chance to have even barely meaningful talk in English.

Of course, but again you are being deliberately obtuse. We are not talking about average Joe's, we are talking about professional engineers engaged in international business and commerce, as you well know.

OK, I know a lot of chemists working in analytical laboratories in Russia (as example of pretty qualified people). Most of documentation (methods, standards, manuals) originally are in English. They fucking pay big money to get them translated  . Most customers are non Russian as well. So out of those ~40 chemists, maybe like 3-5 somewhat know English on entry level. Other are completely clueless in English. None of them can read documentation without machine translation.
Only some office people talk in English, but I'd guess that was a requirement when hired.

Actually when I happen to arrive there, I'm like a god of English. Yet I cannot even write grammatically correct.

[Cerebus]

... If one of my German colleagues meets with one of my French colleagues, they will speak English together. Similarly with my Japanese colleagues, my Chinese colleagues, my Latin American colleagues. ...

How do you know what they speak when you are not there?

I know plenty of Germans who speak good French or Italian as well as German and English. I've done business in France, in French with a Frenchman and two Germans, and two Brits in attendance.

[coppice]

It may also be because I am not an EE. I work in a branch of engineering that involves lots of international business dealings and world-wide travel. English is the lingua franca of international commerce. If one of my German colleagues meets with one of my French colleagues, they will speak English together. Similarly with my Japanese colleagues, my Chinese colleagues, my Latin American colleagues. It is how the world works. People will of course switch to Chinese if they are both comfortable with the language, otherwise they will converse in English.

I don't think any rational person would deny that English is the lingua franca of the modern world, or that the majority of international meetings are conducted in English. The thing is most of the world isn't participating in those meetings, because of their limited to non-existent English. Try walking around the offices of an electronics multinational in China, and chat with the people. You'll generally have good success. Try the same in a local Chinese company and they'll run off to hunt for the one or two people with good enough English to hold a conversation with you. They usually have one or two on staff specifically to deal with international issues.

[RoGeorge]

English is the lingua franca of international commerce.

Absolutely. Same for business, engineering, science, and so on.

I don't understand where from came this argument that English is not the de facto international language. 

[wraper]

English is the lingua franca of international commerce.

Absolutely. Same for business, engineering, science, and so on.

I don't understand where from came this argument that English is not the de facto international language. 

I did not see such argument. The argument confronted was that as English is an international language, everything else is irrelevant. And therefore typing in English only is sufficient for every case. Which IMO is plain stupid statement.

[Karel]

My logic was (short story):

• Electronic Design Engineers are able to read basic english
• because of that, ASCII coding suffice

[Monkeh]

My logic was (short story):

• Electronic Design Engineers are able to read basic english
• because of that, ASCII coding suffice

And your logic is faulty.

Ω ± µ ¹ ² ³ × ÷ √

None of these symbols exist in ASCII. ASCII is not sufficient. Just because you think only in terms of the written word and/or are unable to learn how to type symbols does not mean they are not needed.

[Zbig]

My logic was (short story):

• Electronic Design Engineers are able to read basic english
• because of that, ASCII coding suffice

How about you go and learn some basic English then, instead of wasting everyone's time with pointless and invalid arguments? You keep on blabbering about how you cannot be an Elecronics Engineer without a grasp of basic English yet you haven't even learned that you're supposed to spell it with a capital "E". It doesn't get more basic than that.

Also, I can finally spell the name of a city I live in properly, at last.

What the hell is wrong with you to keep arguing for having less choice? Or do you just have to have an opposite opinion to everyone else, no matter what, because it somehow makes you feel smarter? Go away.

[Ampera]

I cannot think of a single POSSIBLE disadvantage to having Unicode support on the forum. None that would justify it's removal.

ASCII is as basic of an encoding scheme as it gets, designed to be the minimal required standard for character translation from machine to machine.

I think there have to still be some EEs not working in English. Whether that is true or not is a matter of subjection, and the fact that with a pool of 7.6 billion people, and 1.5 billion English speakers, there has to be one person in that 5.1 billion excess that is a capable, functioning EE. Regardless, this forum isn't always about EE. Current issues relating to tech, and people in general is often brought up here. Strange product names in other languages, or someone asking for a quick translation of some text might pop up. The point isn't, if there isn't an immediate apparent to me, a single user, it should be ripped out, is not an adequate reason for not having Unicode support.

[Canis Dirus Leidy]

What the hell is wrong with you to keep arguing for having less choice?

"Epic tales "The Song of Coaming", "The Song of Turret Platform" and "Legend of the Smoothness of Movement" bring to us, albeit in somewhat tedious form, majestic picture of colossal battles without reason"
(ц)Иван Кошкин "Краткий биографический словарь древних участников форума, часть вторая"