L2/07-237

Comment on L2/07-232 - Suggestion to encode Javanese in the SMP
Karl Pentzlin - 2007-07-31

The actual (as of 2007-07-26) version of the preliminary proposal
to encode Javanese (L2/07-232, http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07232-n3292-javanese.pdf )
states in its introduction:
"Javanese script was in current use in Java until about 1945."

The amount of unused codepoints in the BMP is very small. If there
shall be room for future extensions of the scripts already encoded
in the BMP (e.g. things like the landsm䫳alfabetet for Latin),
the inclusion of new scripts into the BMP should be decided with care.

Especially, I suggest to interpret the criterion of contemporariness
in a very rigid way. If a script is not used for new texts (i.e. not
only for citing existing texts) in newspapers or correspondence today
(i.e. 2007), it should not be regarded as being in contemporary use
to justify its inclusion into the BMP.

As L2/07-232 shows no evidence of contemporary use in this sense,
I suggest to encode Javanese in the SMP rather than the BMP unless
evidence of a real contemporary use can be shown.