L2/25-229

Editorial Working Group Report and Recommendations for UTC #185 Meeting

Source: Editorial Working Group

Date: October 20, 2025

A. Unicode Release Topics

A1. Unicode 17.0.0 Report

In preparation for the release of Unicode 17.0.0 on September 9, 2025, the Editorial Working Group reviewed and revised the following sections of the core specification:

Section 2.13.2 (Byte Order Mark (BOM)), Section 3.12.3 (Hangul Syllable Composition), Section 5.18.2 (Complications for Case Mapping), Section 7 (Europe-I), Section 7.1.11 (Latin Extended-F), Section 7.3.1 (Coptic), Section 7.4.6 (Cyrillic Extended-D), Section 7.9.2 (Combining Diacritical Marks Extended), Section 9.2.4 (Arabic Joining Groups), Section 9.2.5 (Combining Hamza), Section 9.3.1 (Syriac)
Section 11.4.3 (Egyptian Hieroglyph Format Controls), Section 11.4.4 (Editorial Marks), Section 12.5.1 (Oriya), Section 12.8.3 (Rendering Kannada), Section 12.9.3 (Rendering Malayalam), Section 13.4.1 (Tibetan), Section 13.24.1 (Tolong Siki), Section 15.3.1 (Sharada), Section 17.3 (Balinese), Section 18 (East Asia), Section 19 (Africa), Section 19.9.1 (Adlam)
Section 20 (Americas), Section 22.9.1 (Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs), Section 23.2.4 (Combining Grapheme Joiner)

A2. Unicode 18.0.0 Report

The Editorial Working Group is now shifting its focus to the next release, Unicode 18.0.0. Our contributing editors have begun the review and editing process for the following sections planned for the new version, numbered as they will appear in the revised new 18.0 text:

Section 9.2.2 (Arabic Cursive Joining), Section 9.2.4 (Arabic Joining Groups), Section 9.2.10 (Arabic Extended-C)
Section 11.6.1 (Anatolian Hieroglyphs), Section 13.22.1 (Gurung Khema)

There is also ongoing work to do routine upkeep of the core specification and to stay current with bug reports and other small tweaks to core specification content mandated by the UTC.

A3. Release schedule

The Editorial Working Group defers discussion of the Unicode 18.0.0 release schedule and its assessment until further progress on the draft text.

B. Website Topics

B1. General Matters

The Editorial Working Group continues its periodical review and general maintenance of Unicode web pages, both out of its own initiative and public feedback.

C. Editorial Working Group Process Issues

FYI: Public-facing information about the Editorial Working Group and its work is maintained on the Unicode Editorial Working Group Page on the website. The Editorial Working Group also maintains an internal subsite for use by the committee. People who would like to find out more about the work of the Editorial Working Group or contribute to that work should contact the Chair, Louka Ménard Blondin ([email protected]).

C1. Scheduling

The Editorial Working Group continues to meet regularly. Our meetings are generally held on a biweekly schedule, except when holidays or other events coincidence, such as UTC meetings. This report to the UTC includes feedback from the Editorial Working Group meetings held on July 31, 2025, August 7, 2025, August 14, 2025, August 21, 2025, August 28, 2025, September 11, 2025, September 25, 2025, and October 9, 2025.

D. UTR Topics

FYI: During this cycle, the Editorial Working Group has been lightly reviewing UAXes and UTSes.

E. PRI Topics & Other Feedback

E1. General Feedback

Date/Time: Wed July 16 09:17:22 PT 2025 ReportID: ID20250716091722 Name: Joel Strasser Report Type: General Feedback Opt Subject: Preference on ẞ over SS when converting ß to upper


x
According to the german speaking Rechtschreibrat the preference when converting the small letter sharp s "ß" to its capital form 
it is now preferred to use the capital letter sharp s "ẞ" over the combination of two capital letter s "SS".

https://www.rechtschreibrat.com/DOX/RfdR_Amtliches-Regelwerk_2024.pdf

§ 25 E3: Bei Schreibung mit Großbuchstaben ist neben der Verwendung des
Groß buchstabens ẞ auch die Schreibung SS möglich: Straße – STRAẞE –
STRASSE.

In comparison the previous version stated:

https://www.rechtschreibrat.com/DOX/rfdr_Regeln_2016_redigiert_2018.pdf

§ 25 E3: Bei Schreibung mit Großbuchstaben schreibt man SS. Daneben ist auch
die Verwendung des Großbuchstabens ẞ möglich. Beispiel: Straße –
STRASSE – STRAẞE.

Which indicates that the preference has changed. This has also been reflected in DIN 5008.

Comments

Noted, no action requested. See the PAG report L2/25-228 for recommendations related to other similar feedback.

Date/Time: Mon Sept 15 06:25:51 PT 2025 ReportID: ID20250915062551 Name: Jakub Jelinek Report Type: Report Error in Publication/Data Opt Subject: Table 4-8 not updated for Unicode 17


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The 4-8 table has not been updated for Unicode 17.0, although UnicodeData.txt and the character pdfs suggest it should have been.

In particular, the

2A700..2B739 NR2 “CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-”

line IMHO should have been changed to

2A700..2B73F NR2 “CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-”

and the

2B820..2CEA1 NR2 “CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-”

line should have been changed to

2B820..2CEAD NR2 “CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-”

and a new line should be added:

323B0..33479 NR2 “CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-”

See the UnicodeData.txt changes:

@@ -39215,14 +39671,15 @@ FFFD;REPLACEMENT CHARACTER;So;0;ON;;;;;N
 1FBF7;SEGMENTED DIGIT SEVEN;Nd;0;EN; 0037;7;7;7;N;;;;;
 1FBF8;SEGMENTED DIGIT EIGHT;Nd;0;EN; 0038;8;8;8;N;;;;;
 1FBF9;SEGMENTED DIGIT NINE;Nd;0;EN; 0039;9;9;9;N;;;;;
+1FBFA;ALARM BELL SYMBOL;So;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;
 20000;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2A6DF;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2A700;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
-2B739;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
+2B73F;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2B740;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2B81D;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2B820;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
-2CEA1;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
+2CEAD;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2CEB0;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2EBE0;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 2EBF0;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
@@ -39773,6 +40230,8 @@ FFFD;REPLACEMENT CHARACTER;So;0;ON;;;;;N
 3134A;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 31350;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 323AF;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
+323B0;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
+33479;;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
 E0001;LANGUAGE TAG;Cf;0;BN;;;;;N;;;;;
 E0020;TAG SPACE;Cf;0;BN;;;;;N;;;;;
 E0021;TAG EXCLAMATION MARK;Cf;0;BN;;;;;N;;;;;
 
Both of the TANGUT IDEOGRAPH- entries also need adjustment, in one case from 187F7 to 187FF and in another case from 18D08 to 18D1E.

Plus I wonder why there aren't extra entries for TANGUT COMPONENT- ranges, those don't have the NR1/NR2 rules, but would need instead 
have names as prefix followed by 3+ digit decimal number starting at some base.  But there are 883 of those, so might be worth handling 
it specially.

Comments

The table has been updated in the Unicode 18.0.0 working draft.

Date/Time: Tue Sep 16 19:28:27 PT 2025 ReportID: ID20250916192827 Name: Martin J. Dürst Report Type: Report Error in Publication/Data Opt Subject: Wrong reference link in newest TR41


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At https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr41/tr41-36.html#Unicode,
there is a link to Version 17.0.0, with the text
"https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/",
but with a mistaken underlying link of
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/.

Comments

The Editorial Working Group has reviewed this and will make the corrections as described.

Date/Time: Fri Sep 19 17:41:27 PT 2025 ReportID: ID20250919174127 Name: David Corbett Report Type: Report Error in Publication/Data Opt Subject: Typos in The Unicode Standard, Version 17.0


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Version 17.0 of the standard has some typos.

In chapter 7, “clocks, respectively, of Xhosa orthography” should start “clicks”.

In chapter 11, in the section on Anatolian hieroglyphs, the comparison starting “Just as for Egyptian hieroglyphs” is wrong, because complex Egyptian layout can now be represented in plain text.

In chapter 13, “jyna” should be “jnya”.

In chapter 16, in “U+1E6F5 TAI YO SIGN OM is used as an alternative of U+1E6E7 TAI YO LETTER O + U+1E6E7 TAI YO LETTER O”, the second U+1E6E7 should be U+1E6D6 TAI YO LETTER MO.

In chapter 17, in the /dudu/ example, the second vowel sign is missing. This was correct in version 16.0.

In chapter 19, “inconsistent.There” should be “inconsistent. There”.

Comments:

The Editorial Working Group has reviewed this and made the corrections as described.

Date/Time: Sun Sep 21 17:09:23 PT 2025 ReportID: ID20250921170923 Name: Linus Sturm Report Type: Report Error in Publication/Data Opt Subject: (Believed to be) Error in Chart 1D200–1D24F


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To Whom It May Concern,

In the character chart for “Ancient Greek Musical Notation” (range 1D200–1D24F, current, Unicode-17 version), there are present-day 
equivalents given in the character notes.

Some of these notes contain notes which denote their pitch through primes, as can be seen by the following example:

“1D208 GREEK VOCAL NOTATION SYMBOL-9
[…]
• instrumental first sharp of e´”
(The Unicode Standard, version 17, p. 1724, left column)

However, the character used for the prime is not the—as far as I am aware—correct one, which is 2032 “PRIME” (′); but instead 00B4 
“ACUTE ACCENT” (´). I therefore propose this error be corrected.

If I am mistaken and this character was correctly used, I would still welcome a reply, be it only to not correct this usage I currently know 
to be wrong in the future.

Kind regards from northern Germany,
Linus Sturm

Comments:

The Editorial Working Group has reviewed this, agrees with the suggestions, and is currently discussing how this can be best corrected.