Re: Fwd: Why incomplete subscript/superscript alphabet ?

From: Ken Whistler <kenwhistler_at_att.net>
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2016 09:27:13 -0700

On 10/6/2016 9:04 AM, Oren Watson wrote:
> If this is a real need, why not petition more software to allow the
> use of the U+8C partial line up and U+8B partial line down characters
> for the this purpose?
>

Because U+008C and U+008B are relics from the days when control codes
were used in terminal control protocols and to drive print trains in
devices like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_printer#/media/File:IBM_line_printer_1403.JPG

Their functions have been completely overtaken by markup conventions
such as <sub>...</sub> and <sup>...</sup>, which *are* widely supported
already, even in most email clients, ri^ght out of the b_ox .

And I suspect that Yucca's statement "so it would usually be best to
give up the superscripting idea here" is intended to mean give up on
asking for a separately encoded superscript character for each Latin
letter, including accented ones (or applying accents to separately
encoded superscript letters). Because, after all, this stuff already
just works: «3^ème » (and not «3ᵉ̀ᵐᵉ», by the way!).

--Ken
Received on Thu Oct 06 2016 - 11:27:49 CDT

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