We at the Unicode working group thought that you might be interested
in hearing about this.
 
The text is a (slightly updated) copy of a short announcement that we put out
on several aliases in December.  We are actively soliciting review of the
Unicode draft until February 15, 1991.
 
Thanks,
 
A.
 
 
Unicode in Final Review Stage
 
After many years of practical experience implementing
multilingual computer systems, information professionals from
various corporations shared a common frustration in dealing
with the incompleteness and complexity of multilingual
character code standards.  In 1989 a working group of
engineers, managers, linguists, and information professionals from
companies and institutions whose business required
multilingual information systems formed a working group to
develop a model for an international character code for
multilingual information processing.  Collaborating companies
included Apple, IBM, Metaphor, Microsoft, NeXT, Research
Libraries Group, Sun, Xerox and others.
 
The product of the collaboration is called Unicode.  Unicode is
a world wide, fixed-width, 16-bit character encoding scheme for
text characters.
 
In January 1991, the Unicode Consortium incorporated to
bring Unicode to the world under the sponsorship of a
multi-corporate, multi-national, non-profit organization.	A
primary goal of the consortium is to establish Unicode itself
as a de facto international character standard while continuing to
propose its adoption by national and international standards
organizations.	Membership in the consortium is open to all who
support Unicode principles.
 
The specification for Unicode Version 1.0 is due for release in
early 1991.   For a copy of the final review draft of the proposed
Unicode standard, contact, Unicode Final Review , c/o
Asmus Freytag
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond WA 98052-6399
USA
 
E-Mail: [log in to unmask] .
 
For more information about membership in the Unicode consortium,
please contact,
 
Ken Whistler
Metaphor Computer Systems
1965 Charleston Rd
Moutain View
CA 94043
USA
 
E-Mail: [log in to unmask] .
 
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