X3T9.2/90-049










March 8, 1990

Mr. Alec Cawley
Quantel Ltd.
Pear Tree Lane
Newbury, Berkshire
RG13 2LT England

Dear Sir,

The SCSI working group considered your proposal for adding a REQUEST TEXT 
SENSE command at its March 6, 1990 meeting.  There was initial enthusiasm for 
the concept with several alternative implementations also explored.

Then someone asked if we needed a field to identify the language of the 
response.  Within minutes all enthusiasm disappeared.  It became apparent that 
manufacturers would need multiple firmware sets to deal with all the different 
language and customer requirements.  (It was expected that at least some 
customers would insist on different text strings from those in the standard.)

Furthermore, the large systems integrators said they already had methods of 
dealing with different languages through country codes and console drivers.  
They would not use the REQUEST TEXT SENSE command, even if it were present.

Consequently, the working group has recommended that the REQUEST TEXT SENSE 
command not be included in SCSI-3.

If you wish to include this facility in your product anyway, I would recommend 
including it in the additional sense bytes as vendor specific data.

Thank you for your proposal.

Sincerely,



John B. Lohmeyer
X3T9.2 Chairman