From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Thu Mar 03 2005 - 23:16:44 CST
Kenneth Whistler <kenw at sybase dot com> wrote:
>>> However, as we have seen when we created the Unicode
>>> Standard, existing character sets have a way of forcing a new
>>> standard to be compatible, lest it be a non-starter. The same
>>> pressure, magnified, would face any successor standard to the
>>> Unicode Standard.
>>
>> Ever increasing chaos and entropy ?
>
> No, just lengthening lists of conversion tables that systems
> need to support, with old, old ones eventually dropping off the
> list as systems eventually obsolete them from non-use and as
> the archaic data stores that exercised them become unused
> and inaccessible.
I thought Patrick's question was interesting because of the potential
chaos and entropy that comes from dragging along outdated conventions
about character usage, not so much the characters themselves..
Unicode introduced a pair of simply delightful characters, U+2028 LINE
SEPARATOR and U+2029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR, that promised to do away with
the confusing and conflicting practices regarding CR and LF once and for
all. The Unix and Windows/DOS and Macintosh worlds would finally be
able to interchange text files without all that petty CR/LF conversion,
or the frustration of tools that won't accept each other's line-ending
convention.
Tragically, U+2028 and U+2029 are almost completely unused today, while
the CR/LF silliness continues. Ironically, it was probably the success
of UTF-8, with its promise of ASCII compatibility, that spelled the end
for U+2028.
-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
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