I haven't seen any summary go around yet, so here is my personal

summary of what happened at WG2 (March 16-20, Seattle) that

had the effect of progressing encodings. (None of what I state

here is binding, of course. The "truth" will appear in the

formal record of the WG2 resolutions.)

--Ken

Actions taken

1. Thaana (WG2 N 1699)

The revised proposal was accepted for progression to PDAM.

Thaana 50 characters U+0780..U+07B1

2. Syriac (WG2 N 1718)

The revised proposal (incorporating changes discussed at

UTC) was accepted for progression to PDAM.

Syriac 74 characters U+0700..U+074D

3. Khmer and Burmese (WG2 N 1729 = L2/98-101)

The work of the Khmer and Burmese Ad-Hoc Meeting was accepted

for progression to separate PDAM's for Burmese and for Khmer.

Burmese 84 characters U+1700..U+1759

Khmer 103 characters U+1780..U+17E9

4. FPDAM Bucket (42 characters)

A collection of characters was accepted for progression to

an FPDAM. These characters, and the associated documents are:

Finnish Romany Characters (WG2 N1619 = L2/98-062) (already

accepted by UTC) [h with caron]

2 characters U+021E, U+021F

Enclosing screen and enclosing keycap (WG2 N1668R2 = L2/97-206)

(already accepted by UTC)

2 characters U+20E2, U+20E3

Kip Sign (WG2 N1720 = L2/98-061) (already accepted by UTC)

1 character U+20AD

Syriac Cross Signs (WG2 N1719) (already accepted in principle by UTC)

2 characters U+2670, U+2671

IDEOGRAPHIC VARIATION INDICATOR (WG2 N1678) (cf. L2/97-024, not

yet accepted by UTC)

1 character U+303E

Extended Bopomofo (WG2 N1713R = L2/98-090) (not yet considered by UTC)

24 characters U+31A0..U+31B7

Modifier Letter tone marks for Minnan and Hakka (WG2 N1713R = L2/98-090)

(not yet considered by UTC)

2 characters U+02EA, U+02EB

Canadian Syllabics additions (WG2 N1655 = L2/97-274)

(already accepted by UTC)

8 characters U+166F..U+1676

5. Modification to Vertical Extension A

The two duplicate characters (U+4551, U+479E) were removed from the

set contained in WG2 N1723. (Cf. L2/97-254R)

China agreed to produce WG2 N1723R for Amendment #17 PDAM balloting.

The modified list will have the holes removed and the characters

moved up. The revised total count of characters is 6582.

(Warning for crossmapping efforts!)

6. Braille (16), Runic (19), Ogham (20). (SC2/WG2 N1695 = L2/98-077)

The dispositions of comments were accepted. All 3 now progress to

2 month DAM balloting. (L2/98-107, 108, 109)

7. Western Musical Symbols (WG2 N1693 = L2/98-045)

Accepted in principle for encoding on Plane 1 in 10646-2.

U-0001D103..U-0001D1D7 (Block U-0001D100..U-0001D1DF).

(Already accepted by UTC.)

8. Etruscan (WG2 N1580 = L2/97-195)

Accepted in principle for encoding on Plane 1 in 10646-2.

39 characters U-00010200..U-00010227.

(Already accepted in principle by UTC.)

9. Gothic (WG2 N1581 = L2/97-196)

Accepted in principle for encoding on Plane 1 in 10646-2.

28 characters U-00010230.. U-0001024B. (Gothic punctuation

removed by consensus.)

(Already accepted in principle by UTC.)

10. 10646 Part 2

The working draft has been introduced (WG2 N1717 = L2/98-094), with Michel

Suignard as editor. CD balloting is due May, 1999, with the

working assumption being that whatever contents of Plane 1 (and

Plane 14) that are ready for inclusion in the CD will be

included at that point.

Actions not taken.

1. Enclosing Triangle (L2/98-056) U+20E4 has been accepted by UTC,

but was not considered at the WG2 meeting.

2. The Mongolian discussion advanced some, but no PDAM has yet been

authorized. If the discussion proceeds apace, the Chinese delegation

may press for an FPDAM at the London meeting in September.

3. All other new script proposals were remanded for further discussion,

including extended Tibetan.

4. The ideographic structure characters were discussed at length.

(WG2 N1494 = L2/97-026). The latest buzz on these is that they

are graphic symbols used in descriptive sequences, and are *not*

to be taken as compositional control characters. Taken this way,

they would not introduce any formal equivalences into Unicode,

and would probably be acceptable for encoding.