From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Wed Mar 02 2005 - 11:38:55 CST
On 02/03/2005 14:56, Peter Constable wrote:
> ...
>
>>>The recently accepted proposals for Hebrew do just that, they change
>>>
>>>
>the
>
>
>>>meaning of existing data.
>>>
>>>
>>That is true of any disunification.
>>
>>
>
>No, Michael, don't take his bait. The proposals accepted for Hebrew
>don't change the meaning of data. The only issue is that the qamats
>qatan can't be implemented in existing or new fonts without awkwardness. ...
>
>
This is true of QAMATS QATAN, but that is only one of the changes
recently accepted for Hebrew, and not necessarily the one which Jony had
in mind.
>...
>Jony's claim is simply incorrect: meaning of existing Hebrew data is not
>changed by the recently-accepted Hebrew proposals. ...
>
The accepted proposal for HOLAM HASER FOR VAV does change the meaning of
existing data, from correctly spelled to a spelling error. It has the
potential (although for Hebrew words rather than isolated fragments this
is not realised in practice) of changing meaning by incorrectly
resolving ambiguities, i.e. a form intended to represent meaning A but
in fact ambiguous between meanings A and B could be incorrectly resolved
to meaning B.
I accept Michael's point that it is impossible to make a disunification
without this danger by adding a new character - but it is possible if a
variation sequence or similar is used. This is a very good argument for
adding variation sequences rather than new characters for
disunifications, for it preserves stability in the standard in the sense
defined by Doug Ewell:
>it does not change in a way that causes existing ... data to break.
>
>
That is why Jony and I among others worked hard to find a solution to
the Hebrew HOLAM problem without adding a new character. For example, we
looked at solutions using variation sequences. But the one who "make[s]
additions to Unicode all the time" strenuously opposed every solution
which did not involve addition of a new character and forced through his
own proposal for an addition, therefore creating the situation in which
the meaning of existing data is changed.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.5.7 - Release Date: 01/03/2005
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