<i18n dev> long-delayed response on Java and Unicode

[Tom Christiansen]

Sherman,

Thank you very, very much for your mail to me back on:

    From: Xueming Shen <xueming.shen at oracle.com>
    Date: Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:01 AM
    Subject: Re: <i18n dev> Java and Unicode
    To: Tom Christiansen <tchrist at perl.com>
    Cc: i18n-dev at openjdk.java.net

It was quite some time, however, before I saw it.  That's because
my mailer "ate" your response, so I wound up thinking there was
no answer.  I believe I've tracked down why that happened and
changed things so it won't happen again--but I'm not positive.

Martijn had been kind enough to forward that lost response to me,
and I've been working on crafting a reply.  I've decided it would
be an inconsiderate imposition on people's time for me to respond
with a single but very long letter.  At over 500 lines, general
high-level matters would surely become lost in all the low-level
technical details.  That just won't work.

So I've decided to try to break it up into smaller, more easily
digested pieces.  I will try to release these one at a time 
over the next several days.

Here's the first.

You wrote:

> Due to resource issue[s] I only managed to add in the script
> and name support in RegEx and Character class.

Am I to understand that you are the *only* person officially
tasked with working on the java.util.regex package, along with
its interactions with the standard String and Character classes?  
If so, I can absolutely sympathize with your resource issues!

Considering the elements needed for a proper software release--
including but not limited to unit testing, bug tracking,
regression testing, release notes, documentation--that's 
a huge amount of work for just one person alone.  I think I 
might be myself overwhelmed with it all if I had to do that!

I have a great deal of respect for people who take on tasks 
that intimidate me, and that one surely does so.

More soon.

--tom