Ah... but that makes U+2323 a more subtle example than it looks.
Do you know of ANY keyboard layout that has a key with SMILE on it? How about the THORN character? How about the currency symbol U+00A4? I mean, my first response to this problem was "why type the expletive key value? give me the ability to switch keyboards!"... but what if I don't have an Ethopic keyboard installed? Or a Tamil keyboard? Or an Urdu keyboard? Or a "math symbols" keyboard?
Since there are many symbols and characters encoded within Unicode that never appear on a keyboard anyway, what is needed is a rapidly accessible "input method" for the various regions of Unicode SEPARATE from locale based keyboards... possibly with a hex/character code... without searching through the Start or Apple menus and then mousing around in the utility/changing font/getting frustrated.
Addison
-----Original Message-----
From: John Jenkins [mailto:jenkins@apple.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 1999 7:39 PM
To: Unicode List
Subject: Re: Hexadecimal in many scripts (ISO 14755)
Peter C. observes:
>
>
>>But consider the use cases:
>
> <typing along happily in Arabic>
> <need a U+2323>
> <switch to Latin keyboard>
> <enable magic Unicode mode>
> <type "2 3 2 3">
> <disable magic Unicode mode>
> <switch to Arabic keyboard>
> <try to recover train of thought>
>
> And just how many people are likely to remember what U+2323 is?
>
Well, I sure as heck don't. And I'm too lazy it dig out my copy of the
standard or look it up.
Anything which requires people to remember an arcane four-digit code to
input *any* character is ridiculous. The Mac has long had the ability to
support multiple and -- in theory -- user-definable keyboards. I believe
Windows has similar capacity. The correct approach is to provide more
well-designed keyboards and input methods, not require users to remember
silly codes.
And don't you mean U+263A WHITE SMILING FACE instead of U+2323 SMILE?
=====
John H. Jenkins
jenkins@apple.com
tseng@blueneptune.com
http://www.blueneptune.com/~tseng
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