Re: ConScript (was: Re: Private Use Agreements and Unapproved Characters)

From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Tue Mar 19 2002 - 17:23:06 EST


At 08:49 -0800 2002-03-19, Doug Ewell wrote:
>What I mean is that for the majority of the scripts registered in
>ConScript, glyphs are either not available or unreasonably hard to
>access, because the ConScript registration depends on outside links that
>have vanished or have been moved to obscure places.

Well it's just fun. We had a bit more spare time in 1997 when we
started it. Also, finding scripts and fonts is one thing. Making a
proposal and then asking for feedback from the author -- and getting
it -- is another. Quite possibly much that is on the ConScript page
should be deleted.

>The main ConScript page explains carefully how to submit a script for
>registration, and uses the existing Tengwar page as an example. In
>particular, there is supposed to be a table of glyphs, typically in GIF
>format, that can be displayed alongside the U+xxxx assignments. For
>over half of the scripts, however, there is no table, but rather a link
>to somebody's Web page where "further information" is supposed to be
>available.

Sigh. OK, we'll try to do some spring cleaning.

>Herman Miller's site <http://www.io.com/~hmiller/> is an important case,
>because so much of ConScript is occupied by his scripts. Miller is
>listed as "a prolific creator of constructed languages spoken by
>(imaginary) alien races as well as by humans." I had never heard of
>him, but evidently he must be important. What seems to have happened is
>that he has moved on from designing one "fictional universe," as he puts
>it, to another, and almost all of his previously designed scripts have
>been either removed from his page or moved to some obscure location that
>I don't have the patience to hunt down.

http://www.io.com/~hmiller/lang/KolagianWriting.html
Fonts at ftp://ftp.io.com/pub/usr/hmiller/fonts/

>And there are no back-links to ConScript or U+xxxx code points for
>his scripts, even if you can find them. You have to meander through
>his little worlds of cute, lovable elves to find out anything about
>the scripts. Bah.

Mm. Well.

>If all of the registered scripts had to have a table, like the one shown
>in the Tengwar example, it would be easy to find the glyphs and learn
>about the script, and maybe even design a font. But this is only true
>for 27 percent of the registrations. I submitted my own registration
>last year, following the Tengwar example diligently, but it was put on
>hold because no TrueType font was available and so the script couldn't
>be interchanged. It seems to me that this standard didn't apply to
>Herman Miller's scripts or most of the others.

Fonts are available for everything that has been REGISTERED I think.
Everything else is just a proposal.

>(Sorry, Michael, for airing my dirty laundry in public.)

(Psst. You didn't finish commenting on the font you commissioned....)

-- 
Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com



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