From: Peter Constable (petercon@microsoft.com)
Date: Fri Jan 02 2009 - 00:48:38 CST
From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On Behalf Of James Kass
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 2:00 PM
> It is axiomatic that plain-text does not include little multicolored
> pictures. Therefore, any application which inserts little multicolored
> pictures in place of text strings is not a plain-text application.
It's also axiomatic that the data passed through a plain-text protocol is plain text, a sequence of abstract characters, however that data may have originated at the source or be processed at its destination.
> Let's consider the committee as organism for a moment...
I think you're going to great lengths while missing some simple realities that UTC sees before it:
- data exchanged in plain-text protocols consists solely of abstract characters
- the goal of the Universal Character Set is to be universal, implying (among other things) that any set of characters with significant usage in ICT industries must be considered potential candidates for encoding
UTC has been and remains fully aware of the potential quagmires that can be encountered by starting to accept arbitrary kinds of graphic objects for encoding as characters, and is determined *not* to go in that direction. That, however, doesn't remove the aforementioned realities, and the way in which certain sectors of the ICT industry have thrust a *particular set* of graphic objects onto the world as abstract characters.
It's as simple as that; no need for elaborate self-preservation conspiracy theories.
> Who is supporting the proposal? (Committee members unanimously,
> and a few others.)
>
> Who is opposing the proposal? (Independents, many of whom are
> unpaid volunteers, or whose livelihood does not depend on the
> encoding process.)
This is a flame I'll chalk up to frustration. It would be a big stretch to suggest that people active in UTC are generally building their present and future livelihood on the encoding process.
Peter
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