PUA - (was: Re: Bantu click letters)

From: Christopher Fynn (cfynn@gmx.net)
Date: Fri Jun 11 2004 - 04:40:00 CDT

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    D. Starner wrote:

    >John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org> writes:
    >
    >
    >
    >>We must be talking past one another somehow, but I don't understand how.
    >>To represent the text as originally written, I need a digital representation
    >>for each of the characters in it. Since all I want to do is reprint
    >>the book -- I don't need to use the unusual characters in interchange --
    >>the PUA and a commissioned font seem just perfect to me.
    >>
    >>
    >
    >But that doesn't work if you're reprinting to XML or HTML, where you can't
    >rely upon a commissioned font being installed and correctly used. I'm not
    >even sure you can trust a commissioned font to be installable on the operating
    >systems of the next few decades.
    >
    >
    >
    Nor on PUA characters actually being useable.. See:

    http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=PUACharsInMSSotware

    If there is not some kind of guarantee that major OS vendors won't grab
    PUA characters for their own purposes, using PUA characters and a
    commissioned font to solve problems like this, is not a workable
    solution in the real world.

    - Chris



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