Hexadecimal in many scripts (ISO 14755)

From: Markus Kuhn (Markus.Kuhn@cl.cam.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Jun 04 1999 - 09:08:03 EDT


Hexadecimal numbers use the first 6 digits of the Latin alphabet to
represent digit values 10-15. ISO 14755 specifies a fall-back
hexadecimal keyboard entry method that allows to enter all Unicode
characters on any keyboard, and it requires that the first 6 letters
of whatever alphabet is represented on that keyboard are also accepted
as hexadecimal digits 10-15.

I am currently thinking about implementing ISO 14755 for xterm, so I
wonder what the first 6 letters of each of the alphabets supported by
xterm are. Unfortunately, the final draft of ISO 14755 that I have
does not provide any guidance here, and at least for Hangul, I have
been told by a local native speaker not to use just the first 6
Unicode positions.

Here is what I have so far as the first 6 characters of all alphabets
for which X Windows knows keyboard codes:

  keysym Unicode keysym name UTF-8 Unicode name

  0x04a7, 0x30a1 kana_a ァ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL A
  0x04a8, 0x30a3 kana_i ィ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL I
  0x04a9, 0x30a5 kana_u ゥ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL U
  0x04aa, 0x30a7 kana_e ェ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL E
  0x04ab, 0x30a9 kana_o ォ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL O
  0x04ac, 0x30e3 kana_ya ャ KATAKANA LETTER SMALL YA
                   
  0x04b1, 0x30a2 kana_A ア KATAKANA LETTER A
  0x04b2, 0x30a4 kana_I イ KATAKANA LETTER I
  0x04b3, 0x30a6 kana_U ウ KATAKANA LETTER U
  0x04b4, 0x30a8 kana_E エ KATAKANA LETTER E
  0x04b5, 0x30aa kana_O オ KATAKANA LETTER O
  0x04b6, 0x30ab kana_KA カ KATAKANA LETTER KA
                   
  0x05c7, 0x0627 Arabic_alef ا ARABIC LETTER ALEF
  0x05c8, 0x0628 Arabic_beh ب ARABIC LETTER BEH
  0x05c9, 0x0629 Arabic_tehmarbuta ة ARABIC LETTER TEH MARBUTA
  0x05ca, 0x062a Arabic_teh ت ARABIC LETTER TEH
  0x05cb, 0x062b Arabic_theh ث ARABIC LETTER THEH
  0x05cc, 0x062c Arabic_jeem ج ARABIC LETTER JEEM
                   
  0x06c1, 0x0430 Cyrillic_a а CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER A
  0x06c2, 0x0431 Cyrillic_be б CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BE
  0x06c3, 0x0446 Cyrillic_tse ц CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TSE
  0x06c4, 0x0434 Cyrillic_de д CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DE
  0x06c5, 0x0435 Cyrillic_ie е CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IE
  0x06c6, 0x0444 Cyrillic_ef ф CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EF
                   
  0x06e1, 0x0410 Cyrillic_A А CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A
  0x06e2, 0x0411 Cyrillic_BE Б CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BE
  0x06e3, 0x0426 Cyrillic_TSE Ц CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER TSE
  0x06e4, 0x0414 Cyrillic_DE Д CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DE
  0x06e5, 0x0415 Cyrillic_IE Е CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IE
  0x06e6, 0x0424 Cyrillic_EF Ф CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER EF
                   
  0x07c1, 0x0391 Greek_ALPHA Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA
  0x07c2, 0x0392 Greek_BETA Β GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA
  0x07c3, 0x0393 Greek_GAMMA Γ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA
  0x07c4, 0x0394 Greek_DELTA Δ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA
  0x07c5, 0x0395 Greek_EPSILON Ε GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON
  0x07c6, 0x0396 Greek_ZETA Ζ GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA
                   
  0x07e1, 0x03b1 Greek_alpha α GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
  0x07e2, 0x03b2 Greek_beta β GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA
  0x07e3, 0x03b3 Greek_gamma γ GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA
  0x07e4, 0x03b4 Greek_delta δ GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA
  0x07e5, 0x03b5 Greek_epsilon ε GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
  0x07e6, 0x03b6 Greek_zeta ζ GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA
                   
  0x0ce0, 0x05d0 hebrew_aleph א HEBREW LETTER ALEF
  0x0ce1, 0x05d1 hebrew_bet ב HEBREW LETTER BET
  0x0ce2, 0x05d2 hebrew_gimel ג HEBREW LETTER GIMEL
  0x0ce3, 0x05d3 hebrew_dalet ד HEBREW LETTER DALET
  0x0ce4, 0x05d4 hebrew_he ה HEBREW LETTER HE
  0x0ce5, 0x05d5 hebrew_waw ו HEBREW LETTER VAV
                   
  0x0da1, 0x0e01 Thai_kokai ก THAI CHARACTER KO KAI
  0x0da2, 0x0e02 Thai_khokhai ข THAI CHARACTER KHO KHAI
  0x0da3, 0x0e03 Thai_khokhuat ฃ THAI CHARACTER KHO KHUAT
  0x0da4, 0x0e04 Thai_khokhwai ค THAI CHARACTER KHO KHWAI
  0x0da5, 0x0e05 Thai_khokhon ฅ THAI CHARACTER KHO KHON
  0x0da6, 0x0e06 Thai_khorakhang ฆ THAI CHARACTER KHO RAKHANG
                   
  0x0ea1, 0x3131 Hangul_Kiyeog ㄱ HANGUL LETTER KIYEOK
  0x0ea4, 0x3134 Hangul_Nieun ㄴ HANGUL LETTER NIEUN
  0x0ea7, 0x3137 Hangul_Dikeud ㄷ HANGUL LETTER TIKEUT
  0x0ea9, 0x3139 Hangul_Rieul ㄹ HANGUL LETTER RIEUL
  0x0eb1, 0x3141 Hangul_Mieum ㅁ HANGUL LETTER MIEUM
  0x0eb2, 0x3142 Hangul_Pieub ㅂ HANGUL LETTER PIEUP

I feel fairly confident about Greek, Cyrillic, and Hangul, however I
would greately appreciate for someone knowledgeable with the other
scripts to confirm whether a native user of these scripts would
recognize the selected characters as the "first six" and would be
happy to use them on her keyboard to enter hexadecimal numbers.

Thanks!

Markus

-- 
Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
Email: mkuhn at acm.org,  WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:46 EDT