Re: ISO 15924 codes reserved for private use

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Mon May 24 2004 - 05:12:57 CDT

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    From: "Doug Ewell" <dewell@adelphia.net>
    > Philippe Verdy <verdy underscore p at wanadoo dot fr> wrote:
    > > If so, why not reserving all codes starting by "Qa" for private use?
    > > This would give 676 rows, whose only 50 first ones have a standard
    > > 3-digits numeric code, and could allow librarians to create their own
    > > private references by giving them full freedom on the last 2 letters
    > > of alphabetic codes, so that they could use them mnemonically (for now
    > > all they have is "aa" to "az" and ba" to "bx").
    >
    > Just allow any of the Qa codes to be associated with any of the numeric
    > codes 900-949, with no prior restrictions. That's the way normal ISO
    > 15924 codes work.

    I was rather thinking about NOT defining any numeric code for all private
    4-Letters codes Qaby-Qazz, but letting the implementation choosing its own
    private numeric codes *out of* the restricted 3-digits space 000-999.

    There will still be a limited interchangeability of numeric codes 900-959
    associated with alpha codes Qaaa-Qabx, but no What I would like to see is a
    larger set of alpha codes for local use. Allowing all Qaaa-Qazz would match this
    need, with 676 possible codes, of which the first 50 are unambiguously mapped to
    numeric codes 900-949, and mapping the remaining 626 codes above 999 (but
    starting at which value? Will there be an extension with 4-digits codes?).

    Or possibly allocating a better private 4-letters space which won't have
    "mnemonic" use for future standard scripts, for example Qqaa-Qqzz (for example
    if one wants to encode a (conjectured) "Qatari" variant of Arabic or
    South-Arabian with a later standard code "Qata" which would fall in the previous
    4-letter spaces.

    With a larger space explicitly allocated, there will never be any conflict with
    future standard codes.



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