From: ngo@fred.nas.nasa.gov (Dr. Hoc D. Ngo)
Subject: [TECH] Viet-Std's seminar and demos on Sun Oct 4, 1992 in San Jose, Calif
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 17:35:54 GMT

Hi all:

You are cordially invited to the seminar on Vietnamese character
encoding and demos of public-domain Vietnamese software running 
on UNIX, DOS, WINDOWS 3.1.  Software will be distributed for free
with a request for $5 donation to help cover the cost. Please read
the attached message for detail.

Thanks

Viet-Std Working Group
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      *************** SEMINAR & VIETNAMESE SOFTWARE DEMO *****************

	Topic:    Vietnamese Character Encoding &
		  Release and Demo of Public Domain Vietnamese Software
	Speakers: The Vietnamese Standardization Working Group (Viet-Std)
		  The TriChlor Group
	Date:     Sunday October 4, 1992
	Time:     2:30-4:30
	Place:    Community Conference Room (2nd floor)
		  Sumitomo Bank
		  515 N. 1st Street
		  San Jose, California, USA

      *********************************************************************


			      ABSTRACT

This seminar will cover the Viet-Std Group's work in the area of 7- and
8-bit Vietnamese character encoding. The VietStd's 8-bit proposal is
"VIetnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange," known as
VISCII.  The 7-bit standard is a quoted-readable convention (VIQR) to
represent Vietnamese characters in 7-bit ASCII.  The TriChlor Group
will then announce software release and give demo.


VISCII is not just another no-name code for Vietnamese characters born
out of Viet-Std members' ego. Rather, it has been carefully designed
with the unique goal of seamless integration into existing computing
environments. Given the constraints of the large Vietnamese character
repertoire on a limited 8-bit code space, VISCII is believed to be the
best compromised code that can be used for both information interchange
over 8-bit channels and information processing (i.e., word processing
and computing).  Therefore, any operating system or software
applications that accept 8-bit characters will generally work with
Vietnamese characters as well.  Because the software does not
distinguish VISCII-compliant Vietnamese from English, there is no need
to develop a Vietnamese version of the applications, except for
Vietnamese specific applications such as keyboarding.  With VISCII, the
Vietnamese user suddenly has at his disposal all the 8-bit software
products that are available to American and West European users. To
the Vietnamese user this
means rich choice, low cost, and instant access to latest versions on
the market.

VISCII-compliant software has been developed for UNIX, DOS, and
MS-WINDOWS 3.1 by members of the TriChlor Group. It is all put in
public domain.  The list of completed software products will be
announced after the talk and demos on UNIX, DOS, and WINDOWS 3.1 will
follow.  The 2-floppy DOS/WINDOWS 3.1 software will be released for
free to the public with a request of $5 donation to cover the cost.


A brief history of the Vietnamese Standardization Working Group is in
order. The group was born in the fall of 1989 out of the Viet-Net
electronic mailing list, which comprised members at companies and
universities throughout the computing world. The group's goal is to
promote the standardization of Vietnamese character encoding and to
monitor ongoing work of international bodies in this regard.  The group
has been working on designing and implementing a code table that can be
integrated into existing computing environments on many platforms.  In
addition, the group has contacted the Unicode Consortium and the
International Standardizations Organization (ISO) to request that the
Vietnamese characters be encoded in the same precomposed form in the
same manner as other Latin-based European languages.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese