L2/11-319

From: Elika J. Etemad <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net>
Date: Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 13:53
Subject: Symbol Categorization
To: Unicode <unicode@unicode.org>


So I've been doing some very close reading of the Po and So categories,
and there are a few things that aren't making sense to me. I was wondering
why is:

 - per cent, per mille, per ten thousand classified as Other Punctuation
   (Po) not as Other Symbol (So)?
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0025/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2030/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2031/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/066a/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0609/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/060a/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/fe6a/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/ff05/

 - number sign, ampersand, and commercial at classified as Other Punctuation
  (Po), not Other Symbol (So)?
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0023/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0026/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0040/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/fe5f/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/fe60/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/fe6b/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/ff03/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/ff06/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/ff20/

 These characters each symbolize a concept, and are not used as punctuation
 (except maybe in URLs, but that shouldn't count). So why are they punctuation
 and not symbols?

 - music sharp classified as Mathematical Symbol (Sm) not Other Symbol (So),
   while music flat is So, not Sm?
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/266f/

 - certain white triangles are classified as Mathematical Symbol (Sm)
   while their corresponding black triangles are classified as Other
   Symbol (So)?
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/25b7/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/25b8/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/25c1/
     http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/25c2/

 These just seem really inconsistent...

~fantasai