Re: IBM again

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Mohamed Eldesoky <arabi hotpop com> wrote:
> Can you believe that man ??
>
> He was the same man who organized the LAW2001 in cairo.
> http://www.ameinfo.com/cgi-bin/fevent/showarticle.cgi?id=101302181704

Salam Mohamed (et al), what follows are very personal opinions and
by no means reflect arabeyes' stance.

I am extremely confused, perplexed and actually mad at what I read
since I don't view their quotes as being very correct and are rather
misleading.  A case in point; the following was noted in the article,

	"The team in Egypt has successfully adapted the core
	 components that are crucial to make Linux capable of
	 handling Arabic text properly, and has released a
  	 number of important standards and applications, now
	 placed into the hands of the open source community."

Can someone note what those components are (beyond ICU and the
mozilla patches) ?

	"The Arabised support, developed by IBM, includes
	 adaptations to key parts of the user interface and
	 input/output handling software (the Layout Engine),
	 as well as Arabisation of basic applications such as
	 text editing and mail handling (including the Xterm
	 terminal emulation service, the Motif graphic user
         interface, the Mozilla Web browser and other OpenSource
         products)."

	"IBM's development centre in Cairo has been driving a
	 coordinated effort to share information and progress
	 amongst the different localisation groups working on
	 the Arabisation of Linux in the region. IBM has taken
	 the initiative to help ensure that the various efforts
	 complement each other, and that there is a free exchange
	 of information on challenges faced, progress achieved,
	 and very importantly, the terminology used, resulting
	 in interoperability between the various approaches."

A couple of key things -- where is this Xterm ??  Beyond Mozilla
support and the various patches that were submitted (and IBM is
rightfully to thank for that support -- credit should and must be
given where its due -- and in this instance, yes IBM deserves it),
and I (along with others) have on ___many___ occasions tried to
open a communication channel with IBM to better coordinate our
efforts in bringing forth faster, more complete solutions.  The
reply we've almost always got was no response (ie. no replies,
our emails get thrown out I guess).  So I'm not sure what they mean
by "IBM...driving a coordinated effort to share information and
progress amongst the different localisation groups...", arabeyes
has certainly seen _none_ of it.

I would LOVE to hear a response to all of this (and I have more,
lots more complaints on this subject) from IBM, but something tells
me we will never hear anything from them (or will we ?).  We've
invited at least 3-4 IBM'ers to subscribe and join in our efforts,
yet none have opted to do that (both on a professional level and
on a personal one - ie. outside work hours).

Sorry for the rant, I just couldn't hold this in.  As noted it really
made me boil.

Feel free to forward this to anyone involved with IBM including
Mr. Tantawy.

Salam.

 - Nadim


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More
http://faith.yahoo.com