From: Marion Gunn (mgunn@egt.ie)
Date: Wed Oct 10 2007 - 08:13:27 CDT
Thanks, Frank, for confirming what I thought I already knew, but was
beginning to doubt. My internal terminologist, as some on this list
know, tends to get a bit bothered at the inconsistent use of
terminology - for example, when unnecessary new terms are invented,
seemingly on a whim (not a judgment statement, only an observation)
it creates difficulties for and wastes the time of those wishing to
scan the net for related information before commenting on new
developments - for example, if "emoticon" is now mostly accepted as
the standard term for what I still think of as a "smiley", then,
unless one has personal memory of or other access to the history of
same, it may not be obvious to people even one year hence that a
search for "smiley" "smileys" or "smilies" may be needed instead. I
don't mean to be pedantic, only reacting against what I hope is a
passing fashion of inventing unncessary new terms, which can be
endemic in some circles, lest it reach plague level.
mg
On 9 Oct 2007, at 10:07, scríobh Frank Ellermann:
> Marion Gunn wrote:
>
>
>
>> Whatever happened to 'dingbats', as a technical term?
>>
>>
>
> It's fine, but neither superset nor subset of 'emoticon'.
>
> Many 'dingbats' have nothing to do with 'emoticons' or
> the 'smiley' subset of 'emoticons'. And many 'emoticons'
> don't have a language / script independent version, let
> alone a glyph in a font.
>
>
>
>> Is "emoticon" now the official technical term by which
>> all such symbols must be collectively referred to in all
>> IT standards dealing with them?
>>
>>
>
> I'm not aware of any standards yet. I recall some kind of
> "dictionary" for "locations" in the IETF GEOPRIV RFCs, and
> something similar for "emotions", but IIRC that's so far
> only IANA "registries" (enumerations) of English words.
>
> And there's a W3C incubator group about "emotions", but I
> lost interest when I found out that they try to tackle the
> real thing (emotions) and not only "emoticons".
>
> Frank
>
>
>
>
-- Marion Gunn mgunn@ucd.ie - - Marion Gunn * EGTeo (Estab.1991) 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn, Baile an Bhóthair, Co. Átha Cliath, Éire. * mgunn@egt.ie * eamonn@egt.ie *
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