(Fwd) F with Hook vs. Florin (was: A basic question on encoding Latin characters)

From: Otto Stolz (Otto.Stolz@uni-konstanz.de)
Date: Fri Oct 01 1999 - 14:55:34 EDT


Dear all,

after I have read so many "Option 5" suggestions but still missing my
own one, I have found that it was sent to Peter C rather than to the list,
as intended.

Here is my contribution. I hope, you find my suggestion valuable.

Best wishes,
   Otto Stolz

--- Forwarded mail from <stolz@iris.rz.uni-konstanz.de> ("Otto Stolz")

Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 10:04:46 -0600

Michael E had written:
> 1. Do nothing. [...]
> 2. Do nothing now. [..]
> 3. Disunify. Add FLORIN SIGN to the currency symbol block and remap
> Mac and PC characters to it instead of U+0192.
> 4. Disunify. Add LATIN SMALL LETTER AFRICAN F WITH HOOK and change
> the case mapping for U+0191 to this rather than to U+0192.

Am 1999-09-30 um 12:31 h hat Peter Constable geschrieben:
> Option 3 sounds like it would be costly to some companies that are
> probably not that easy to move, and it sounds like it would also
> impact a large number of users.
>
> Option 4 sounds like it would impact the fewest number of users
> (I'm just guessing [...]

I'd like to suggest an even better option:

5. Disunify. Add FLORIN SIGN to the currency symbol block.

This means:
- Do not change the Mac and PC mappings;
- just let U+0191 and U+0192 be an ordinary upper/lower-case pair used
  to write some African languages and (as we have learned from the recent
  discussion) Mac file names;
- make the Florin sign a first-class member of the currency-symbols
  community, ideally located in the 20A0..20CF range, and with symbol
  features in the character database.

As with every disunificatition, some applications will have to adapt,
eventually; notably financial calculations, including spreadsheet pro-
grams, will have to learn to use the new Florin sign in F-with-hook's
stead.

I reckon, this option will avoid the impediments of option 3 and the
possible misunderstandings of option 4.

Best wishes,
   Otto Stolz

---End of forwarded mail from <stolz@iris.rz.uni-konstanz.de> ("Otto Stolz")



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:53 EDT