From: Marion Gunn (mgunn@egt.ie)
Date: Fri Mar 19 2004 - 10:13:09 EST
Ar 15:33 +0000 2004/03/18, scríobh Arcane Jill:
>This probably is going to sound like a really dumb question, but ... Is
>the BMP being saved for something?
>...
>Arcane Jill
There are never any dumb questions, Jill, only dumb answers.
BMP is part of 10646-speak, and probably part of pre-Unicode terminology.
To summarize (telescoping time) so as to get this msg off before returning
to paid work.:-)
The decision to create the BMP dates back to a time when certain software
suppliers were complaining that anthing approaching a full implementation
of ISO 10646 (later transmuted, so to speak, into Unicode) would be too big
for them to handle, and too costly.
Small local groups, such as ours, were then working rapidly and painlessly
mostly on national and international character sets on far smaller scales.
I recall chairing some discussion at a CEN workshop, possibly in Slovenia,
in re something related, at the height of the debate. In any case, by that
time, CEN had already emerged as a big player in this work (I think Unicode
had yet to make much of a mark, but I don't mind if someone corrects me
about that, if wrong, because it really doesn't matter now, in the least).
Anyway, it was agreed to divide ISO 10646 into sections, such as BMP (Basic
Multilingual Plane) and the MES (Minimum European Subset), and my own
company, among others, was very pleased to be hired by CEN to do the
necessary (a truly exciting and rewarding period, when we actually got
_paid_, generously, if belatedly, for such Standards work!)
Is the BMP a reality, actually referenced in software, or scheduled to be
so referenced in future? I doubt it, although I think that would be a very
good thing (just as I believe the 8859 series and the like more practially
useful, even today, as clean-cutting tools, than the full complement of
10646, which remains a rather blunt instrument which creates obstacles in
unflagged text).
Justification for saving the BMP for the purposes originally intended is
probably something the Unicode Consortium would be happy to clarify for
you.
Perhaps that has already been done in some of today's e-mails, which are
too numerous for me to read right now, under pressure of urgent work. (I do
promise to try to read them all.) If you want more info on the purpose and
genesis of the BMP, I suggest that you ask NSAI to let you study the
archives of NSAI/AGITS/WG6 (later transmuted into NSAI/ICTSCC/SC4), or thou
send a simple query directly to CEN (on whose live agenda such matters
remain, I believe).
Hope this helps,
mg
ps.
Would someone just hit reply to this msg, to time our comms here? There
seems to be a long timelag between sending and delivery of Unicode list
msgs, sometimes.
mg
-- Marion Gunn * EGTeo (Estab.1991) 27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn, Baile an Bhóthair, Co. Átha Cliath, Éire. * mgunn@egt.ie * eamonn@egt.ie *
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