Re: Proposal to encode dominoes and other game symbols

From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 12:08:26 CDT

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    Andrew C. West wrote:

    > I've never quite worked out what purpose U+2616 [WHITE SHOGI PIECE] and U+2617
    > [BLACK SHOGI PIECE] are intended for.

    > The standard game of shogi (Japanese Chess) has 20 uncoloured tiles on each
    > side, with a kanji inscription giving the piece's name on each tile.

    In discussions of shogi games, one player is conventionally called 'Black' and the other
    'White', but as you note this has nothing to do with the colour of the pieces. I would
    like to know what the presumed purpose of U+2616 and U+2617 is. If it is indeed to be able
    to represent shogi game pieces, then the glyph representation shown in the Unicode charts
    might be changed: both pieces should be white in colour, but facing in opposite directions.

    > Each side's
    > 20 tiles are identical (differentiated by orientation not by colour) except for
    > the "general".

    Not so. Both sides has four generals: two 'gold' and two 'silver'. The gold and silver
    generals differ from each other, but each side's pieces are entirely identical.

    By the way, if any Unicoders play shogi, I could bring my travel set next time I come to
    the conference.

    John Hudson

    -- 
    Tiro Typeworks        www.tiro.com
    Vancouver, BC        tiro@tiro.com
    Currently reading:
    Typespaces, by Peter Burnhill
    White Mughals, by William Dalrymple
    Hebrew manuscripts of the Middle Ages, by Colette Sirat
    


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