Re: The rules of encoding (from Re: Missing geometric shapes)

On Saturday 10 November 2012, John Knightley <john.knightley_at_gmail.com> wrote:
 
> Whilst using the PUA is far from perfect at the end of the day it is better than the alternative of not using the PUA.
 
Yes. The Private Use Area is a very useful facility in that it allows characters of one's own designation to be added to a personally made font as one wishes. One can with many software applications then use the font and the characters much as one can use a commercial font that has just regular Unicode characters.
 
Here are links to some forum posts where I have used Private Use Area characters in various circumstances.
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=9655#p9655
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=16813#p16813
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=16746#p16746
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=16264#p16264
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=17499#p17499
 
http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=17556#p17556
 
A feature of using the Private Use Area is that code point allocations are made by a person or entity that is not a standards organization. Also, Private Use Area code point assignments are not unique.
 
In many cases, neither of those features presents a problem for successful use of a Private Use Area encoding.
 
However, although one can often not be concerned with the fact that the code point assignment is not unique, the fact that it is not made by a standards organization is a big problem if one is seeking to have a system that one has invented taken up by people and companies generally.
 
For one of my present uses of the Private Use Area I am seeking to have a system that I have invented taken up by people and companies generally.
 
However, I feel that there is no chance of a system that I have invented being taken up by people and companies generally using a Private Use Area encoding. Thus, I feel that I will not be able to present an encoding proposal document showing existing widespread usa.
 
However, if the Unicode Technical Committee and the ISO Committee were to agree to the principle of encoding my inventions in plane 13, not necessarily using the particular items or symbols that I am at present using in my research, yet the committees working out how to form a committee or subcommittee to work out what to encode, then I feel that a group project with lots of people contributing ideas could produce a wonderful system encoded into plane 13 that could be of great usefulness to many people.
 
My present goal is to have the opportunity to write a document requesting that agreement in principle and for the document to be considered and discussed by the committees and a formal decision made.
 
William Overington
 
12 November 2012
Received on Mon Nov 12 2012 - 04:40:10 CST