From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 15:41:49 EDT
Jungshik asked:
> BTW, would it be still possible to change alternative names(NOT names)
> for some characters in TUS 4.0?
No. This list, along with all the other data files, is now frozen
for Unicode 4.0.
> Maybe not. I should have reported these
> earlier at least when 'bad names list' was compiled the other day or
> when permille was talked about or even earlier when I wrote abuot U+2130
> (in 2001?)
The following suggestions are being salted away as possible
updates for Unicode 4.1 (or whatever the next opportunity turns
out to be).
>
> 'gradient' (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Gradient.html) is not listed
> as an alternative name to U+2207 (NABLA) while the chart lists 'del' and
> even Laplace operator (Laplacian/Laplacian operator) that is represented
> not by U+2207 but by U+2207 followed by superscript 2. 'Laplace operator
> (written with superscript 2)' has to to be 'informative note' rather
> than an alternative name. 'gradient' has to take its place.
>
> U+210B(Script Capital H) is annotated with 'Hamiltonian function'
> while U+2112(Script Capital L) is with 'Laplace
> symbol'. Although some people refer to what most people simply
> call 'Hamiltonian' as 'Hamiltonian function' (I wouldn't
> believe this if google had not come up with a number of matches.
> (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Hamiltonian.html), it may have
> been better to give more common alternative names 'Hamiltonian' or
> 'Hamiltonian operator'. As for U+2112, Largrange wouldn't have liked the
> fact that 'L' is exclusively attributed to Laplace by Unicode when U+2112
> is used for 'Largrangian' as widely as for 'Laplace transform'. Besides
> U+2131 (Script Capital F) has an alternative name 'Fourier transform' so
> that I think it is more consistent to do the same withU+2112 with by
> giving an alternative name 'Laplace transform' in addition to 'Largrangian'
> I'm proposing.
??
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Lagrangian.html
uses an italic-L, *not* a script-L, for the Lagrangian. (In more
than one instance, so this is not just a point mistake.)
The same site uses a script-L for the Laplace transform. So it
would seem to me that the Unicode annotation in this case is
correct.
>
> U+212F may as well have a second alternative 'natural exponent'.
Regarding the following issue for squared Latin abbreviations,
if you have specific suggestions for annotations, then make
them. However, as you surmise, I don't think the UTC is
likely to consider further annotation of this particular
batch of compatibility characters to be of much great
utility.
--Ken
>
> Finally, a bunch of 'Squared Latin Abbreviations' (U+3380 -
> U+33DD, U+3371 - U+3376) may need better alternative names (or
> informational notes) than they have have now because their names
> (e.g. Square NA for nano ampere) are not so descriptive [1] as names of
> characters of a similar nature, U+2120 (Service Mark), U+2120 (Telephone
> Sign), and U+2122(Trade Mark Sign). Of course, this is not necessary
> if they were given obscure names and no alternative names/informational
> note on purpose to discourage their use because they can be just easily
> replaced by sequences of Latin/Greek letters and are included only
> for the sake of compatibility with CJK standards.
>
> Jungshik
>
> [1] U+3380 is named 'SQUARE PA AMPS' whereas other characters
> in the series of 'amperes' are just named 'SQUARE NA', 'SQUARE MU A',
> 'SQUARE MA', and 'SQUARE KA'. U+3380 is 'pA' (pico ampere) and not
> for 'PA Amp'. These square characters may not be at the top
> of the list of characters with bad names, but belong to it.
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Apr 22 2003 - 16:26:37 EDT