From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Sat Nov 02 2002 - 13:40:34 EST
Apologies in advance to Jungshik for reposting this to the list. I felt
the usual conditions applied: general interest to the list, no harm done
to Jungshik, etc.
Jungshik Shin <jshin at mailaps dot org> wrote:
>> This helps perpetuate the idea that U+005C could be either a reverse
>> solidus, a won sign, or a yen sign, depending on the font. This is
>> exactly what Unicode is *not* about. Microsoft usually understands
>> this.
>
> Do you know any good way to persuade Microsoft on this point other
> than writing to the Unicode list? If you have any personal contact,
> it may be a good idea to begin lobbying for our idea via that channel?
> As you wrote, MS usually knows what Unicode is or is not about, but in
> this particular case, they're certainly off the track possibility out
> of the overzeal to preserve 'the compatibility'. This has to be taken
> care of as soon as possible to stop the perpetuation of a wrong idea
> that U+005C is overloaded with reverse solidus and yen/won sign.
I don't have any contacts at Microsoft, but there are several MSers on
the list who might be able to make a difference here.
Microsoft will have to ask themselves exactly what compatibility is
being preserved here. Unicode finally offers a way to get out of that
messy overloaded-ASCII situation they got into with the code pages.
Converting from duals is never easy -- you always have to guess which of
the two was intended -- but continuing to claim that U+005C could be
three different characters doesn't help.
-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
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