Re: String name and Character Name

From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Wed Apr 13 2005 - 09:52:09 CST

  • Next message: Peter Kirk: "Re: String name and Character Name"

    Kenneth Whistler wrote at 3:02 PM on Tuesday, April 12, 2005:

    >The *stability* of published character names is far more important
    >to the network of interdependent standards that refer to
    >character encoding standards than is the correctness of the name.
    >...
    >Unicode character names are normative for the purposes of the
    >character encoding standard and those other IT standards that
    >reference it. They are also *immutable*, by action of both
    >SC2 and the UTC, because change of character names is almost
    >as disruptive of the standards as changing code points for
    >characters would be.

    It's simple - we can have our cake and eat it too.

    Just add correct names to the existing ones, by following the time-
    honored Unicode dictum, "You can add, but never subtract".

    And so, we do the following, in the spirit of HYPEN-MINUS, making sure to
    always maintain uniqueness for every addition:

      LATIN SMALL LETTER AE -> LATIN SMALL LETTER AE-LATIN SMALL LIGATURE AE

      SOLIDUS -> SOLIDUS-SLASH-FORWARD SLASH

    Then you can use whatever sub-name you want. For those who need the old
    incorrect names, they will still have them; for those who want the new
    (politically) correct names, they too will be available.

    Dean A. Snyder

    Assistant Research Scholar
    Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project
    Computer Science Department
    Whiting School of Engineering
    218C New Engineering Building
    3400 North Charles Street
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218

    office: 410 516-6850
    cell: 717 817-4897
    www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi/
    http://users.adelphia.net/~deansnyder/



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