From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Thu Apr 29 2004 - 04:14:39 EDT
On 28/04/2004 16:04, Kenneth Whistler wrote:
>>>Oh? How does the existing PUA fail to support a picture font adequately?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>My point is that, according to what Ken has written, the PUA can be used
>>for a picture font only if not only the end users but also the software
>>developers have come to a specific agreement about that picture font and
>>the identity of each character in it.
>>
>>
>
>Nonsense.
>
>
I'm glad to hear it! :-)
>
>
>>He seemed to reject my suggestion
>>that developers might sensibly support the PUA apart from such specific
>>agreements with end users, by supporting default character properties
>>for each PUA character and allowing the glyph to be specified in the font.
>>
>>
>
>It is my understanding that that is precisely what most rendering systems
>do right now with PUA characters.
>
>
Again, I am glad to hear it, and I am glad to hear that you seem to
think is sensible behaviour. For this is really all I was asking for, at
this point. I had obviously misunderstood you when I thought you were
saying that this was an abuse of the PUA because the application is not
a party to the private agreement about the interpretation of the PUA
characters.
>What you *cannot* expect a generic system to do, for example, is
>support casing rules for a bicameral script that you have
>defined a bunch of characters for in PUA code points. For *that*
>kind of behavior, you have to have an "agreement" with the implementing
>software, because it represents behavior beyond the "default character
>properties for each PUA character". ...
>
Understood.
>...
>
>
>>Agreed, but only if the PUA works in the kind of way which you and I
>>envisage. If it works as Ken envisages, which is very close to saying
>>that it doesn't work at all, you would be wrong to expect any support
>>for any of the properties you have listed, because applications should
>>not even try to support PUA characters of which they have no specific
>>knowledge.
>>
>>
>
>What seems to be repeated, deliberate misrepresentation of my
>position on this is getting rather tiresome.
>
>
Please, Ken, my misunderstanding is not deliberate. I may be stupid, but
I am not being deliberately obstructive. I am grateful now for your
clarification, although I still don't see how it is consistent with your
earlier insistence that "users" include software applications in this
sentence from TUS section 15.7,
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch15.pdf:
> Private-use characters are assigned Unicode code points whose
> interpretation is not specified by this standard and whose use may be
> determined by private agreement among cooperating users.
But I am not expecting further clarification now.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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