JTC1/SC22/WG14 N857

                                      ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14 N857

Title: Liaison statement from WG14 to WG20
Date: 1998-10-08
Status: approved by WG14
Source: SC22/WG14



The C standard that WG14 has produced can be implemented with any
character set, as long as it includes the basic character set
(some 94 characters which are essentially ISO/IEC 646).

WG14 recommends that products should be able to conform to the WG20
standards for any such character set as the native coded character
set.  This is a requirement for WG14 to be able to use WG20
standards, such as the 14651 sorting standard, the 14652 cultural
conventions specification standard, and the 15435
internationalization APIs standard.


The C standard uses a locale model where all of the categories
are changeable by the user.  This also includes character
attributes, such as whether a character is considered alphabetic
or a special character.  For example, the Greek beta could be
considered a letter or a special character dependent on the locale.

WG14 recommends that products should be able to conform to the WG20
standards with such variation of the attributes of characters.
This is a requirement for WG14 to be able to use WG20 standards.


WG14 is happy to say that some WG14 experts are interested in
participating in the development of the 15435 i18n APIs standard,
especially in the area of the C binding specification.