> 1. Is there are projected release date for a 1.5.2 RC?

1.5.2 RC5 should be available early next week, if no major issues
(crash bugs or regressions are found) it will become V.1.5.2

> 2. Is the resolution for the bug in computing character lengths
> multi-byte character sets (UTF8 and east asian character sets in
> particular) in data planned for install with the 1.5.2 release?

Nope

> 3. Is the bug surrounding file naming conventions where the OS and the
> database are using different character sets slated for resolution in the
> 1.5.2 release?

Nope.

> (2) could be critical for my current Firebird project. Most of the
> customers are international, so the design uses UTF-8 to minimze
> internationalization issues. Since many of the users are in China and
> the Phillipines, even code pages require full MBCS support. If it will
> not be resolved, then I may be able to devote some time in late January
> or early February towards its resolution.

Currently, a lot of work is being done on INTL handling in FB2 (seperate branch)
by Adriano. It is planned to pull in his ODS changes and core INTL changes
into FB2. These core changes will support only the existing v1.5 feature set,
We can then look at releasing a 2.0Alpha in the very near future. If there
are major problems with the new INTL stuff then it will get backed out for
merging at a later date.

> (3) is "need to know" only because if it will not be resolved then my
> application must be able to handle it.

Understood. Although my answers were not positive at least it tells you what is
happening.

Paul