Re: A basic question on encoding Latin characters

From: peter_constable@sil.org
Date: Thu Sep 30 1999 - 13:18:21 EDT


       Michael E wrote:
>1. Do nothing. Leave it to the font makers to make special
       fonts for Ewe.

>2. Do nothing now. Wait for Ewe users to complain.

>3. Disunify. Add FLORIN SIGN to the currency symbol block and
       remap Mac and PC characters to it instead of U+0192.

>4. Disunify. Add LATIN SMALL LETTER AFRICAN F WITH HOOK and
       change the case mapping for U+0191 to this rather than to
       U+0192.

       Option 1 includes the possibility that font makers include
       *two* glyphs which are selected according to features such as
       language using ATSUI/AAT, OpenType or similar technology. I.e.,
       it's not necessary that fonts serve either one or the other but
       not both. This solution still may not be the best, however, for
       purposes other than rendering.

       Option 2 is calculated to make certain people continue in their
       distrust of certain bodies, and I hope we can do better than to
       do nothing on this matter.

       Option 3 sounds like it would be costly to some companies that
       are probably not that easy to move, and it sounds like it would
       also impact a large number of users.

       Option 4 sounds like it would impact the fewest number of users
       (I'm just guessing - please tell me if I'm wrong); I have no
       idea whether this would have a small or large cost on those
       users in the short term. (Long term, it should benefit them.)

       I also have no idea how to compare the cost to this group of
       users (option 4) to the alternative costs entailed by option 3.

       Peter



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