Old Orthography, Hal.

[George Hart <ghart@socrates.berkeley.edu>]

This is a good-natured (!) reply to Hal's reply about the older orthography.

Good lord, Hal, let's not get all sentimental and teary-eyed about a few
glyphs!  I'd like to think the old characters are equivalent to a
coffee-stained catalog card with all sorts of intriguing things penciled on
it, but I just can't see it.  The fact is, whether we use the old style or
the new style, we're talking about a byte or two.  Much as we might like
it, there's only so much information that can be encoded into a byte!

The fact is, whether we like it or not, not one iota more information is
encoded when you write lai etc. the old way.  The information is exactly
the same, and we need a STANDARD.  If people just can't deal with the new
orthography (life can be tough at times!) then I have a wonderful font with
all the old signs -- it's in public domain, and I'd be glad to send it to
them.  George.