L2/99-350

Date:  1999-10-28

Title:
Personal Comments on “Working draft for the revision of ISO 2375”, dated 1999-10-01

Doc Type:
Personal Contribution

Source:
Edwin Hart

Status:
For consideration of the ISO/IEC 2375 editor for preparing the CD

Action ID:  ACT

Due Date:

Distribution:  SC 2/WG 3 Members and Liaison Organizations

This document lists several concerns about the 1999-10-01 working draft for the revision of ISO/IEC 2375.  I ask for the 2375 editor to consider them for inclusion in the committee draft (CD 2375).  This cover letter lists these concerns.

I appreciate the editor incorporating my editorial comments into this working draft of ISO/IEC 2375.

The attachment contains suggested updates (both editorial and substantive) to the document. 

The next part lists concerns.

List of Concerns

1.         Who should be responsible for defining the mapping to 10646 and providing the 10646 character names and short identifiers for new registrations?  [Restatement of item 1 from the 1999-08-27 comments]

The 1999-10-01 working draft makes this an optional task for the SA but a mandatory task for the RA-JAC.  Personally, I would strongly prefer that the obligation belong to the SA but that the SA may ask the JAC for assistance with a small subset of characters from the proposal.

Revise Clause 6.4 to: “A Sponsoring Authority should, when convenient and applicable, shall propose mappings of the characters proposed in the registration to ISO/IEC 10646.”

Revise clause 8.4 and add it to clause 6.4: “The RA-JACSponsoring Authority shall note the (U+)xxxx or (U-)xxxxxxxx) code position and character name from ISO/IEC 10646 of each proposed character that has a corresponding character in ISO/IEC 10646.  The Sponsoring Authority may request assistance from the Registration Authority in specifying the mapping to ISO/IEC 10646.”

Remove Note 1 of Clause 8.4: “It is strongly recommended that the Sponsoring Authority assist the RA-JAC by providing a proposed ISO/IEC 10646 mapping, but it is not required that such mapping be provided.”

2.         If a question or disagreement arises as to the proper mapping of a proposed character into 10646 or proper 10646 name for the character, who should have the final authority to resolve the question: SC 2, the SA, SC 2/WG 2, the RA-JAC, the RA?  [Item 3 from the 1999-08-27 comments]

I recommend that the RA-JAC have this responsibility.  However, since the SA “owns” the registration (Note 2 in clause 8.4, and clause 6.5), if the SA and RA-JAC cannot agree on the mapping or the 10646 name, then by a majority vote the RA-JAC may require the SA to add a description of the alternative mapping and/or the official ISO/IEC 10646 name to the registration prior to the RA circulating the registration to the members of the coding subcommittee for the three-month information and comment period.

3.         Since the RA is publishing the 2375 Registry on the WWW, what additional information (like fonts) should be required from the SA for registration?  [Item 9 from the 1999-08-27 comments]

I have seen comments that the scanned ideographic characters are very difficult to distinguish in the WWW copy of the 2375 Registry.  Having fonts or bitmaps could help eliminate the readability problem.

4.         Does ISO 2375 allow duplicate registrations of the same code page?  [Item 10 from the 1999-08-27 comments]

The first bullet of clause B.6.2 seems to imply that duplicate registrations are allowed.

5.         Clause B.4 seems to imply that multiple registrations, provided that the registrations are not identical (Clause B.1.6), are allowed for the same application.  Please add “provided that the proposed registration is not identical (see clause B.1.6.) to an existing registration.  In addition, can the editor provide an example of this clause?

6.         Does ISO/IEC 2375 allow registering character repertoires in addition to coded character sets?

I think that ISO/IEC 2375 is not for registering character repertoires; rather the standard is for registering coded character sets.  Therefore, I request that the editor review and selectively change “character set” to “coded character set” as appropriate in the CD.

7.         To Annex E, add a sample layout for the registration table with the code positions in the registration, the character name (and if different, the ISO/IEC 10646 name in parenthesis), and the ISO/IEC 10646 short identifier.  State the exact text to be used when the proposed character does not have a mapping into ISO/IEC 10646.

8.         To Annex E, describe the layout of the 16×16 code table and add an example table. After the last sentence in clause B.1.1.1.1, reference the 16×16 code table in Annex E.

9.         To Annex H (differences from prior version), note that this version requires that new registration include a mapping to the corresponding characters in the ISO/IEC 10646 standard.

10.     For the normative references clause, ISO has a convention to place a space between the colon and the year the standard was published.  Also, use an italic font for the text of the titles of the standards.  (See the attachment.)

11.     You may need to harmonize the fourth bullet in clause 6.1 with clause 11.2. 

a.         What is the intent of the fourth bullet?  Does “international” need to be included?  The fourth bullet is part of a list of valid Sponsoring Authorities:

·         any international organization having liaison status with ISO or IEC or with any of their technical committees or subcommittees.

b.        Clause 11.2 refers to “international, governmental organizations”.  What are examples of such organizations?  International Telecommunications Union (CCITT)

12.     For clause 11.2, do we want to allow transmission of appeals by facsimile instead of registered mail?

13.     In clause 12.3, it may make sense to remove the specific clause of the ISO Directives.  Rather, (a) simply specify the correct title of the ISO document without a date, (b) include the document date in the Normative References clause, and (c) add the normal ISO warning about the standards being current at the time of publication.  This avoids the problem of using the old procedure cited in the specific dated edition of the ISO Directives after ISO changes it. It also avoids the problem of needing to update the 2375 standard every time the ISO Directives change.  You could also copy the ISO procedure directly into the revised 2375 standard.

14.     As a very personal comment, I do not like the font used for italics.  It has too much slant to my taste.

Requested Action

I ask that the editor consider these comments in creating the CD for ISO/IEC 2375.

[End of Document]