Re: Capital Sharp S in the News

From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2008 - 12:26:30 CDT

  • Next message: Gerrit Sangel: "Re: Capital Sharp S in the News"

    On 7/3/2008 9:35 AM, John Hudson wrote:
    > Michael S. Kaplan wrote:
    >
    >> This is my opinion is that Microsoft should make them a case pair in
    >> the next version of Windows.
    >>
    >> (ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2008/02/24/7864631.aspx)
    >
    > I can imagine either a locale preference setting at the system level
    > or at the application level (e.g. Word Options), enabling the user to
    > decide whether to case ß to SS or the new uppercase Eszett character.
    One problem not addressed by just a new character code or just new
    uppercase rules is that the German keyboard has '?' in the shift
    position for the key that produces the sharp s. Unfortunately, that's
    not a rare symbol - way more frequently used than an uppercase sharp s.
    As a result, I fear, the inertia and/or resistance will impede a shift
    to a keyboard layout that implements the sharp s as a regular shift-pair.

    All that encoding the capital sharp s has done is level the playing
    field: it is now possible for the minority usage to be supported as part
    of the IT infrastructure, and that gives it a chance to become majority
    usage over time. A chance, that is, but by no means a certainty.

    A./
    >
    > John Hudson
    >



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