L2/99-323 From: Asmus Freytag [asmusf@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 1999 2:35 PM To: Multiple Recipients of Unicore Subject: Summary of WG2 meeting in Copenhagen Here is a summary report from WG 2 meeting 37, Copenhagen, Denmark, which was held 1999-09-13--16 with 35 delegates representing 14 national bodies, 3 liaison organizations and 1 guest. In the following I quote some of the text of the resolutions (in "") and summarize the rest. WG2 made no changes to the character repertoire, except postponing the same six characters that Unicode already had postponed. No new work was accepted for part one, but part 2 was moved to CD (committee draft) stage, which is the first stage that is formally balloted. Several corrections to names of characters or annotations were approved, these match the corrections done in the Unicode Character data base. Two glyphs will be fixed in addition to the glyph fixes known prior to the Copenhagen meeting. The significant one is the decision to follow established implementation practice and present PESATA SIGN as "Pts". Technical corrigendum 3 was finished and 10646 will now list a table of short Hangul names in a new Annex, in addition to giving an algorithmic approach for constructing the full name. No names will be printed in the code charts. The limits on ideographic description characters were accepted. For part 2 these resolutions were taken: RESOLUTION M37.9 (Mathematical alphanumeric symbols): Unanimous "WG2 accepts the proposal for 991 (subject to verification of this number) new mathematical alphanumeric symbols in document N2086, for inclusion in 10646-2, in the range D400 -- D7FF in Plane 1. The project editor is to select the appropriate character names and block name in the preparation of the text for inclusion in part 2." RESOLUTION M37.10 (CJK unified ideograph extension B): Unanimous "WG2 accepts the proposal for 42,807 CJK unified ideographs of extension B in document N2105 from the IRG, for encoding in plane 2 of 10646-2, in the range 0100 -- ABFF. The WG2 notes that the IRG contributing editor has provided the code charts organized as 16 rows by 8 columns. WG2 further accepts dropping of the word "unified" from the name of plane 2. The project editor is to select the appropriate names for the characters and the block name in the preparation of the text for inclusion in part 2." RESOLUTION M37.11 (2nd WD of 10646-2): Unanimous "WG2 accepts the disposition of comments in document N2087r on the 2nd WD of 10646-2 and instructs its project editor to prepare the text for CD 10646-2 with assistance from the contributing editors, including the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols (see resolution M37.9 above) and the CJK unified ideographs extension B (see resolution M37.10 above) in the CD. WG2 further instructs its project editor to submit the CD document to SC2 secretariat for a CD ballot with unchanged target dates." An interesting input came from North Korea asking for a completely different set of Hangul characters to supplant the current Hangul Syllables block. Here's the outcome of that: RESOLUTION M37.12 (Feedback to D.P.R of Korea): Unanimous "With reference to the NP in document N2056 to amend the Korean encoding of Amendment 5, WG2 instructs its convener to inform SC2 to respond to the Committee for Standardization of the D.P.R. of Korea: a) that WG2 cannot support this NP because any reordering of the standardized Korean Hangul characters would harm existing implementations that are using the standard including its Amendment 5 b) that existing standardized character names cannot be changed because character names are normative in the standard and changing them would harm existing users of these standardized character names c) invite them to make concrete proposals to add any missing characters following the existing WG2 Procedures and Guidelines document (JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2002), and the conventions for naming of characters in the standard, for future consideration by WG2, and, d) invite them to participate in the IRG regarding any Hanja character requirements they may have and, e) draw their attention to FCD-3 of ISO/IEC 14651 -- international ordering under ballot in SC22." JIS had requested additional compatibility ideographs: RESOLUTION M37.16 (CJK compatibility ideographs from JIS): Unanimous WG2 requests IRG to review document N2095 on CJK compatibility Ideographs from Japan, and provide their input to WG2 before meeting 38 of WG2, in the context of IRG resolution M13.8 in document N2111. A lengthy discussion touched on the ongoing discussion about the programme of work. The German delegation noted that they had received feedback from scholars engaged in working with ancient scripts. This feedback was twofold: - in many disciplines active work is under way, but not ready for standardization. Experts view the existing ISO or Unicode proposals as amateurish or 'popular science' and feel that they would set back rather than advance their work. In these cases it is imperative that we reach a common understanding with these expert groups before proceeding. - in many disciplines work is carried out exclusively via either transliterations or via photographic facsimile of the texts to be studied. Because of the variation of letter forms over time, it is neither clear what to standardize (synchronic or diachronic) nor what use such codes would be put to in the context of the scholarly work. In these cases it is imperative that we understand these issues and could forward a clear case why progressing with standardization is beneficial. These are serious issues that were presented in a very thoughtful manner. They are germane to our approach to encoding ancient scripts and need to be addressed. They are not identical to the Japanese comments, but are the reason for the German abstention on that matter. (The Swedish delegate did not attend the full WG2 meeting, and may have abstained for that reason). RESOLUTION M37.17 (Japanese NB concerns to JTC 1 on SC 2 program of work): Germany and Sweden Abstained "WG2 takes note of the comments in document N2062 (SC2 N3336, JTC1 N5826) regarding the issue of when to use NP versus subdivision process for new amendments to 10646. WG2 endorses the recommendations from SC2 ad hoc group established at the SC2 meeting no. 9 in Fukuoka, Japan. Further, WG2 accepts and endorses the recommendations in contribution N2049 (SC2 N3341), and instructs its convener to forward document N2049 along with a summary of the recommendations to SC 2 secretariat for forwarding to JTC 1. WG2 also encourages its experts to get support from their national JTC 1 committees of the recommendations contained in document N2049." A./ Asmus Freytag Unicode Liaison to WG2 and SC2