Re: Four Punctuation Symbols

From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Fri Jan 14 2005 - 18:22:36 CST

  • Next message: Jon Hanna: "RE: Four Punctuation Symbols"

    Alexander asked:

    >
    > could anyone tell me what are the codepoints for "?..",

    <003F, 002E, 002E>

    > "!..",

    <0021, 002E, 002E>

    > "!!!",

    <0021, 0021, 0021>

    > and "???"?

    <003F, 003F, 003F>

    > I can't find them in the charts and since things like "!!",
    > "??", "?!", "!?" are encoded I expected those punctuation symbols to
    > be present as well.
    >
    > Using U+003f, U+2025 and U+0021, U+2025 sequences (EXCLAMATION MARK,
    > TWO DOT LEADER and QUESTION MARK, TWO DOT LEADER) along with triple
    > exclamation or question marks seems to be excessive.

    Well, there is no reason to use U+2025 for these, now is there?..

    >
    > Further, chapter 6.2 of the 4.0 book states:
    > These doubled punctuation marks are included as an
    > implementation convenience for East Asian and Mongolian text,
    > which is rendered vertically.
    >
    > Even if they are for implementation convenience only, what is the
    > rationale of the exclusion of the mentioned four characters (character
    > sequences) from the Unicode?

    The compatibility doubled punctuation forms are *attested* in
    East Asian typographic practice, turned vertically:

    W
    O
    W
    !!

    In such contexts, they are being treated as units, and it is easier
    to map them in East Asian fonts and map between East Asian character
    sets and Unicode with the compatibility characters encoded in
    the standard.

    There is no such requirement for arbitrary combinations of
    ASCII punctuation, which users may multiply at will!!!!!!!...

    "?..", "!..", "!!!", and "???" have no particular status as
    characters per se. Having them encoded as single character units
    would simply create entry, processing, and equivalencing
    difficulties for them, when there is no problem whatsoever
    in simply dealing with them now as sequences of characters.

    --Ken



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