L2/11-451

Title: Deprecate the Unicode_1_Name property
Author: Markus Scherer
Date: 2011-dec-15

I would like to propose that the UTC deprecate [1] the Unicode_1_Name (na1)
character property, the "Old name as published in Unicode 1.0" [2].

I believe that, while the Unicode_1_Name data preserves historical information,
it is of no practical use.

The one area where Unicode_1_Name was useful was for control characters
for which it has the "ISO 6429 names for control functions,
for printing in the code charts" [2].

Those control character names sometimes include multiple alternate names
(e.g., U+000C -> "FORM FEED (FF)") which reduces their practical usefulness,
and Unicode 6.1 adds those alternate names as separate Name_Alias values.

In addition, I suggest removing the Unicode_1_Name data from UnicodeData.txt
and stabilizing [3] Unicode_1_Name,
like was done for the ISO_Comment property [4].

Sincerely,
markus

[1] http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/#Deprecated_Properties
[2] http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/#Unicode_1_Name
[3] http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/#Stabilized_Properties
[4] http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/#ISO_Comment