Re: I'm still alive!

Thanks Martin - good comments.  I'll try to get revisions out soon...

On Friday, January 9, 2004, at 08:12  PM, Martin Duerst wrote:

>
> Hello Lloyd,
>
> Thanks for forwarding these to the list. Great material!
>
> Below some comments:
>
> At 19:51 04/01/07 +0000, Lloyd Honomichl wrote:
>
>>> Two FAQ's that I've had on my queue for a while:
>>>
>>> Can we send these out as plain text and worry about the content (I 
>>> can do some editing)
>>> before worrying about the formatting?
>>>
>>>
>>> <FAQ1>
>>> Question: Do display capabilities of computers in other countries 
>>> vary?  Do I need to worry about
>>> screen sizes, number of colors, etc.?
>
> The two main points I would add:
> - display capabilities vary a lot these days because different people
>   have computers with different-sized screens, but also because there
>   are a lot of other devices (PDAs, cellphones,...). Although not all
>   Web pages may need to work on cellphones, try to design with as few
>   limitations as possible.
> - There may not be that much of a difference between e.g. the US, 
> Europe,
>   and Japan, but e.g. in India or Africa, the situation may still be
>   a bit different.
>
>
>>> Background: In the past (until the 90's) customers outside the 
>>> United States often had less
>>> capable computer systems than those in the U.S.  It was common for 
>>> other countries to lag
>>> two to three years behind in getting the latest in personal computer 
>>> technology.  This gap
>>> has disappeared in recent years.
>>>
>>> Similarly, in older text mod operating systems it was common for the 
>>> number of lines of text
>>> on the screen varied.  For instance while most U.S. systems allowed 
>>> 25 lines of available
>>> text on the screen, some Japanese systems had fewer, because the 
>>> height of Japanese characters
>>> is greater and some systems reserved one or two lines for a "Front 
>>> End Processor" (the equivalent
>>> of today's Input Method Editor.  Variations also existed between 
>>> various vendors' systems
>>> in Japan.
>>>
>>> Answer:  Today there is no need to make special allowances for 
>>> hardware limitations in other
>>> countries - BUT many similar considerations SHOULD be kept in mind 
>>> for accessibility reasons.
>>> For instance, the fact that virtually every monitor sold today can 
>>> support millions of colors
>>> doesn't make it possible for color blind users to distinguish all 
>>> colors.  Check out the W3C
>>> Web Accessibiity Inititive for more details.
>>> </FAQ1>
>
>
>
>>> <FAQ2>
>>> Question: To what extent does my commerce web site need to handle 
>>> foreign currencies?
>>>
>>> Answer: Though there are always exceptions most sites don't require 
>>> any special effort to deal
>>> with foreign currencies.  Dealing with multiple currencies raises a 
>>> number of interesting
>>> problems that may not be worth solving.
>>>
>>> Formatting numbers to match the currency formats used in various 
>>> locales is fairly easy, but
>>> flucuation in exchange rates causes problems that are not easily 
>>> solved.  As an extreme example
>>> imagine an auction site that allows each user to view prices in 
>>> their own currency.  A user in
>>> the U.S. lists an item for sale on Monday and asks that the bidding 
>>> start at $10.00.  Later that
>>> day a user in the U.K. views the item and is informed that the 
>>> bidding starts at 5 pounds 62 pence.
>>> (using that morning's exchange rate of 1.78).  Thinking its a 
>>> reasonable price, she bids 6 pounds.
>>> Later that day an user in German see the current high bid is 9.16 
>>> Euros and raises the bid to
>>> 10 Euros.  The next day the first user returns and decides the price 
>>> is too high, so she finds
>>> another similar item to purchase instead.  Wednesday the Pound 
>>> surges against the Euro and as the
>>> auction comes to a close th first bidder gets an email informing her 
>>> that her bid of 6 pounds
>>> has won and she should send her payment!
>
> This is a very good example. Probably best to add a table, with columns
> for each day, and lines for the bids, the conversion rates, and the 
> conversion
> results. This will make it easier to understand. Also, make the units 
> on
> the conversion rates explicit, e.g. "(using that morning's exchange 
> rate
> of 1.78 US$/British Pound)".
>
>
>>> Most web sites are owned by a company and that company generally 
>>> does business in a single currency.
>
> Much too general. Many web sites are owned privately. Many companies
> do business in several countries. I think I know what you want to say,
> but there are several ways your text can be misunderstood.
>
>
>>> Its generally safer to stick to that currency for all transactions.
>>> EBay does allow auctions in
>>> other currencies - but the all bids and prices for that item are in 
>>> a SINGLE currency.
>
> "the all bids and prices for that item" ->
> "all the bids and prices for a single item"
>
>
>>> If you decide to deal with multiple currencies you still need to 
>>> decide how often to update your exchange rates
>>> and who to rely on to supply them.
>
> and back the up!
>
>
> Regrads,    Martin.
>
>
>>> If you've ever walked down the streets of a forign city
>>> and seen the variation in exchange rates from one vendor to the next 
>>> you'll realize there is no
>>> single source for these rates.
>>>
>>> So we recommend that you just deal with a single currency.  If you 
>>> want to display the value in
>>> the user's currency, then at least display both currecies and make 
>>> it clear that the price is based
>>> on the primary currency and that the value in their currency is 
>>> strictly for informational purposes.
>>>
>>> </FAQ2>
>
>

Received on Saturday, 10 January 2004 07:54:14 UTC