RE: What is the principle?

From: Mike Ayers (mike.ayers@tumbleweed.com)
Date: Wed Mar 31 2004 - 13:44:13 EST

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    > From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org]On
    > Behalf Of Peter Kirk
    > Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 9:12 AM

    > On 30/03/2004 16:30, Kenneth Whistler wrote:

    > But
    > what if users of certain other scripts e.g. RTL scripts want just a
    > handful of PUA characters with the properties they need? Why is
    > preference given to CJK? This sounds like bias to me even if
    > I was wrong
    > to call it western.

            Oh, yes, Peter, you have a identified a clear bias against...
    against... against... uh, certain hypothetical situations?

    > >If you want some specialized behavior for software, you either
    > >write it yourself, or pay someone to write it, or convince someone
    > >else that adding such a feature to the software *they* write
    > >will pay for the investment cost in terms of incremental
    > >increased sales.
    > >
    > >You may not like how the software industry works, but thems
    > >the breaks for any mature industry.
    >
    > Well, I don't quite see why it is business sense for software
    > companies
    > to support the huge PUAs for variant CJK characters, outside

            Support? ROFL! Call up one of those companies and tell them that
    you are having trouble displaying PUA fonts, eastern or otherwise. I'd like
    to snoop on that call.

    > they were supposed to use the PUA at their own risk.

            Well, gee, somebody understands that principle so clearly WHEN IT
    APPLIES TO SOMEONE ELSE.

    > >This is the kind of stuff the UTC refuses to start up by trying
    > >to provide some subdivision of semantics in the PUA. *That* is
    > >the principle, by the way, which guides the UTC position on
    > >the PUA: Use at your own risk, by private agreement.

            ..."and quit bothering us about it." That's gotta be in there
    somewhere. If not, I have an amendment to propose.

    > >>What
    > >>we do want is compatibility between our applications and the system
    > >>software, and this proposal is the way to do that.

            No. The *only* way to maintain compatibility between your
    applications and the system software is to ensure that your applications
    only do things that are supported by the system software. If you want RTL
    PUA, ask your system software vendor. Here, you're just whining into the
    wind.

    /|/|ike



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