Re: Revised N2586R

From: Peter_Constable@sil.org
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 13:09:05 EDT

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    William Overington wrote on 06/26/2003 07:03:12 AM:

    > yet I am suggesting that where a
    > few characters added into an established block are accepted, which is
    what
    > is claimed for these characters, there should be a faster route than
    having
    > to wait for bulk release in Unicode 4.1.

    Once both UTC and WG2 have approved the assignment of characters to
    particular codepoints, I might risk making fonts using those codepoints
    for those characters, as it's not very likely the codepoints will be
    changed at that point. There's no guarantee that would not happen,
    however, so I certainly wouldn't distribute such fonts if I were a
    commercial foundary -- too much at stake. If an ammendment to ISO 10646
    gets published prior to a new version of Unicode, though, that would
    constitute a guarantee the codepoints will not change.

    > If these characters have been
    > accepted, why not formally warrant their use now by having Unicode 4.001
    > and then having Unicode 4.002 when a few more are accepted?

    That is not how versioning is done with the standard. Please read
    http://www.unicode.org/standard/versions/

    > Some fontmakers can react to new
    > releases more quickly than can some other fontmakers, so why should
    progress
    > be slowed down for the benefit of those who cannot add new glyphs into
    fonts
    > quickly?

    Fontmakers don't need to wait until a new version is published before they
    start preparing fonts.

     
    > For example, symbols for audio description, subtitles and signing are
    needed
    > for broadcasting. Will that need to have years of waiting and using the
    > Private Use Area when it could be a fairly swift process and the
    characters
    > could be implemented into read-only memories in interactive television
    sets
    > that much sooner?

    Well, if the characters haven't even been proposed for addition to the
    standard, then yes, it will take years of PUA usage.

    > Why is it that it is regarded by the Unicode Consortium
    > as reasonable that it takes years to get a character through the
    committees
    > and into use?

    Because there is a process that takes time. International standards aren't
    created by a few people working out of their garage. Some international
    standards take far longer than do updates to Unicode.

    > Surely where a few characters are needed the Unicode
    > Consortium and ISO need to take a twenty-first century attitude to
    getting
    > the job done

    It might be a good idea to become more familiar with the actual process
    and work on international standards in general before criticizing the
    people doing the work. There are a number of people working quite hard on
    this stuff, with their time being volunteered by the organizations and
    companies they represent, or from their own personal time.

    - Peter

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Peter Constable

    Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
    7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
    Tel: +1 972 708 7485



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