Subject: Unicode Implementer's Workshop announcement

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1992 16:16:01 EST

The Unicode Consortium will sponsor a Unicode Implementer's Workshop.
 --------------------------------------==============================

 Target Audience:
     Technical writers, managers or engineers, developing or considering
     development of software supporting Unicode.

 Date:
     March 12 and 13, 1992

 Location:
     Digital, Merrimack Conference center in New Hampshire, USA
     Hotel information and directions are attached.

 Content:
     March 12 will feature a full day professionally developed lecture
     course covering the Goals and Architecture of the Unicode Standard,
     as well as how its implementation addresses character coding
     problems that exist in todays multi-code page environments or
     tomorrows multi-lingual systems.

     A separate demonstration room will provide a look at working Unicode
     systems and prototypes

     March 13 will feature seminar style talks on implementation aspects
     of Unicode, such as converting existing code, compression, sorting,
     relation of Unicode to other standards, impact on computer languages
     and locales, as well as other topics.

 Course Material:
     A full set of notes will be provided for the course. Also included
     will be the full text of papers accompanying the talks. A special
     updated Implementer's version of the Unicode Standard, including
     diskettes with character code conversion tables, will be
     distributed to registered participants

 Registration:
     A registration form is attached.

 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |  Isai Scheinberg                         A3/979/895/TOR              |
 |                                          IBM Canada, Inc.            |
 |  phone: (416) 448-2260                   895 Don Mills Road          |
 |  fax:   (416) 448-2114                   Noth York, Ontario M3C 1W3  |
 |  email: [email-masked]     CANADA                      |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

------------------ Attachment 1 - Agenda --------------------------------

The March 13 tentative agenda and brief introduction for each item:

8:30 - 9:00   Welcome

    Gayn Winters     -        Digital, Technical Director
    Ted Sasala       -        IBM, Director of NLS
    Mark Davis       -        Unicode Inc., President

9:00 - 9:30   Unicode and ISO 10646

    Is there one universal code standard or two? What is the status
    of the ISO standard? Will a product which implements Unicode
    be conformant to the ISO 10646? Isai Scheinberg from IBM Canada will
    address these and similar questions.

9:30 - 10:30  Program Migration to Unicode

    What needs to be done to convert existing C programs to support
    Unicode? Asmus Freytag will describe Microsoft experience with
    conversion of Windows NT programs.

10:30 - 11:30 Non-spacing marks

    Non spacing marks (going also by the name of "floating diacritics")
    is one of the areas which scares implementers of the Unicode
    standard. Mark Davis from Apple will describe the strategies for
    handling of non spacing marks in various types of character
    processing.

11:30 - 12:15 Compression of Unicode data

    Unicode characters are two bytes each. American and European
    developers invariably protest this at first, since this doubles
    the character portion of any text data. Greh Hullender will share
    Go Corporation experience in compressing Unicode text.

12:15 - 13:15 Lunch

13:15 - 14:00 Unicode in PL/I

    PL/I is a programming language widely used on mainframe computers.
    The new version of PL/I which will run on OS/2 plans to support
    Unicode as a new character data type as well as an encoding for the
    program source. J.G. Van Stee from IBM will outline the design
    considerations that PL/I development team is faced with.

14:00 - 14:45 Code Set conversions

    Unicode is the wave of the future. Unfortunately most of our
    operating systems are still committed to supporting the past.
    So until Unicode sweeps the planet there will be a need to convert
    billions of characters from Unicode to current code sets and back.
    Lloyd Honomichl will discuss Novell approach to optimizing the
    memory needed for storing conversion tables.

14:45 - 15:30 Collate in Unicode

    Now that Unicode defines all of the world's characters in one place,
    how do we sort a truly multilingual data? Pamela Ottaviano from
    Microsoft and Catherine Wissink from University of Washington will
    describe their proposal.

15:30 - 16:15 Unicode Model and the XPG/POSIX locale model

    The Locale model developed by various standards and users groups
    (X/Open consortium, Uniforum, and other) is based on the notion of
    code set independence. The *single code* code set assumption is
    central to the Unicode model. Eamon MacDermott from Digital will
    discuss the issues and the directions for the coexistence or
    convergence of these two models.

16:15 - 16:45 Unicode and ISO Font Interchange Model

    The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has recently
    adopted a standard for font interchange. John McConell from Digital
    will describe the differences between the ISO 9541 font model and
    Unicode, the problems these differences cause application developers
    and practical ways to overcome some of these problems.

16:45 - 17:30 Unicode and OSI standrads

    Unicode is on its way to become an international standard. Other
    ISO standards which are being reviewed to include I18N features
    plan to include support for the universal code. Jurgen Bettels
    and Masami Hasegawa from Digital will discuss the plans for Abstract
    Syntax Notation (ASN.1) the Directory Services (X.500) and the
    Message Handling System (X.400).

------------------ Attachment 2 - Hotel information ---------------------

    The Unicode Workshop has reserved a block of rooms at a special rate of $45
    per night plus 8% tax at the Best Western Merrimack Inn, Merrimack NH. Make
    your reservations directly with the hotel. When making a reservation say
    that you are attending the Unicode Workshop. The block of rooms and the
    special rate is guaranteed until February 20. The Merrimack Inn offers
    complementary transportation to and from Manchester Airport (12 miles) and
    to and from the Digital Conference center (2 miles). Transportation to and
    from Logan Airport in Boston (55 miles) can be arranged for a fee.

    USA Today newspaper delivered to every guest room each weekday morning.

    Complimentary hors d'oeuvres served Mon.- Fri. 5-7 p.m. in Players  Lounge.
    Executive Travel Center Club open Mon. - Thurs. 5-10 p.m.

 MERRIMACK INN (FORMERLY HILTON)
 Exit 11 Everett Turnpike            Tel (603)424-6181 / (800)922-3477
 MERRIMACK, NH 03054                 Fax (603)424-1668
 USA

------------------ Attachment 3 - Directions ----------------------------

 From Logan Airport to Hotel:

    Exit airport, follow signs to Callahan Tunnel I-93 North.

    Proceed through tunnel take second right immediately outside tunnel
    (expressway North I-93).

    Follow I-93 North for approximately 5 miles, take exit for I-95 South (Route
    128 South), signed for Woburn, Waltham.

    Follow I-95 (Route 128 South) for approximately 5 miles, take exit signed
    for Nashua (Route 3 North).

    Follow Route 3 North into New Hampshire all the way to exit 11, Everett
    Turnpike. Exit in lane 1. There is a $0.50 toll. Turn left at the bottom of
    the exit ramp. Proceed to street light, turn right at Burger King. Take next
    right into the hotel parking lot.

    The journey is approximately 55 miles. Driving yourself in rush hour is not
    recommended as it can take an hour to get through the tunnel. Consider
    taking a limo as their drivers know back routes avoiding the tunnel. Limo
    service can be arrange via the hotel.

 From Manchester Airport (NH) to the hotel.

    Take a right out of the airport onto Brown Ave. Take a left at 2nd set of
    lights. Follow signs to 101 East. Take Nashua/Boston exit onto route 3
    South, Everett Turnpike. Go through tolls ($0.75). Take exit 11, go through
    lights, take first right. You will see the Best Western sign.

 From hotel to Digital

    Exit to right from hotel parking lot, at lights take right.  Proceed
    approximately 4 miles to DEC on left.

 From points south to Digital

    Take route 3 (see directions from Logan) to exit 10 ($0.50 toll). Take a
    left at the end of the toll ramp, then a left at the second set of lights.
    You are on Digital Drive. Follow the signs to MKO2.

------------------ Attachment 4 - Registration --------------------------

                     Unicode Workshop Registration
                     _____________________________

 The conference will be held in the Wellington Room, Digital Equipment
 Corporation MKO2, Merrimack, NH.

 Please complete and return this form to Tim Greenwood. There is no
 charge for the workshop but we need to keep track of numbers. You will
 receive a response to the registration.

 Return the form to

 [email-masked]

 or, if you do not have access to email

 Tim Greenwood
 Digital Equipment Corporation ZKO2-1/O07
 110 Spit Brook Road, Nashua, NH 03062-2698

 Tel: 603-881-0575
 Fax: 603-881-0120

 _____________________________________________________________________________

 Name __________________           email: _____________________________

 Company ________________________  Tel: ____________  Fax: ____________

 Address _______________________
         _______________________
         _______________________

 Attend:   March 12  Y/N
           March 13  Y/N

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