Re: Chinese FVS? (was: RE: Cuneiform Free Variation Selectors)

From: John Jenkins (jenkins@apple.com)
Date: Tue Jan 20 2004 - 12:32:06 EST

  • Next message: Kenneth Whistler: "Re: Cuneiform Free Variation Selectors"

    On Jan 19, 2004, at 11:22 PM, Christian Wittern wrote:

    > Hmm. Are you saying this can also be used for cases were both (or all
    > necessary) forms are already encoded?

    No. I'm just using U+8AAA and U+8AAC as an example of the kind of
    glyphic difference this is intended to cover. Since they're already
    encoded, that's as far as it's going.

    > Could you give us a more
    > elaborate example of how this is supposed to work in the cases you
    > cite?
    >

    1) U+9CE6 is a traditional Chinese character (a kind of swallow)
    without a SC counterpart encoded. However, applying the usual rules
    for simplifications, it would be easy to derive a simplified form which
    one could conceivably see in a book printed in the PRC. Rather than
    encode the simplified form, the UTC would prefer to represent the SC
    form using U+9CE6 + a variation selector.

    2) Your best friend has the last name of "turtle," but he doesn't use
    any of the encoded forms for the turtle character to represent it. He
    insists on writing it in yet another way and wants to be able to
    include his name as he writes it in the source code he edits. The UTC
    ends up accommodating him using U+2A6C9 (which is the closest turtle to
    his last name) + a variation selector.

    3) You're editing a critical edition of an ancient MS, and you find
    that your author, who talks a lot about handkerchiefs, uses U+5E28
    quite a bit, but varies between the "ears-in" form and the "ears-out"
    form almost at random. Rather than lose the distinction which *may* be
    meaningful, you (with the UTC's blessing) use U+5E28 for the ears-in
    form (as Unicode uses) and U+5E28 + a variation selector for the
    ears-out form.

    ========
    John H. Jenkins
    jenkins@apple.com
    jhjenkins@mac.com
    http://homepage..mac.com/jhjenkins/



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