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0 pointsJuliate2mo ago0 comments

Even basic local names in Western contexts (with characters other than just [a-zA-Z0-9_\ ]) cannot be properly and consistently input or searched in most of corporate or retail software, at the basic text level, because they rely on broken assumptions that even modern ERPs still follow. I routinely sift through 3 or 4 different spellings of my name every time someone asks for my name in their systems.

I cannot imagine the nightmare it must be for non-western languages.

I don't know exactly what the real, hard incentive is to make it happen at last, as this needs a strong perspective over software as a tool to serve people, as well as some kind of artistic literacy: we need more people to care about the tools they build, and more people to pay the makers because of that. Steve Jobs, with all his downsides, had this kind of focus and impact. But this needs to be systemic, not exceptional.

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yerushalayim2mo ago

You’re absolutely right that even “Western‑adjacent” names break in systems that were never designed to handle anything beyond ASCII. It’s no surprise that entire writing systems fall through the cracks.

Same goes for Steve Jobs. One of his most underrated contributions was his insistence that typography, calligraphy, and the aesthetics of written language were not decorative extras but core to the human interface. Apple invested early in system‑wide text rendering that treated all scripts as first‑class citizens. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed what happens when leadership actually cares about the universality of writing and makes it systemic.

fuzzfactor2mo ago

>things like glyph ordering, bidi resolution, cursor movement, hit‑testing, line breaking, and font fallback

I think part of the problem is that things like this are often just barely working on the one set of test data that often just barely covers the fundamental requirement in its most simplified "happy path" form to begin with. LTR in this case.

And then the coders move on to get the next objective barely working, but nobody ever goes back far enough to reinforce the weak points in the fundamental structure before it's a far more challenging task. And then if done it's still too challenging to go all the way back.

breezykoi2mo ago

I've gotten into the habit of replacing the accented "é" in my first name with a plain ASCII "e" in forms to avoid troubles. The worse part is that the form is usually accepted, then later on you encounter random issues (cannot log back in, ...).

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