Re: Code Point -- What is the integer?

From: Hans Aberg (haberg@math.su.se)
Date: Fri Apr 29 2005 - 10:49:29 CST

  • Next message: Marion Gunn: "Re: Code Point -- What is the integer?"

    At 15:33 +0100 2005/04/29, Marion Gunn wrote:
    > > ...there should perhaps be a notion
    >> of input abstract characters. And so on. Unicode mixes all these
    >> together in the notion of "abstract characters", without explicitly
    >> clearly separating them.
    >
    >Also true.
    >
    >Would it help to simply (a) use the words/term 'graphic character' for
    >the usuals/majority (i.e., characters which display on the screen as
    >alpha and/or numeric for use in text), and (b) 'non-graphic' for what
    >are sometimes now referred to in Unicode as 'abstract characters' (such
    >as ESC)?

    The notion of an "abstract character" is the comprehensive notion
    that includes all other characters. I suggested the notion of a
    "rendering character" as one that is put there specifically for
    rendering purposes alone. A character such as "DIGIT ZERO" will
    surely display something in normal usage, but it is still not a
    graphical character. By contrast, any variation of the "0" used in
    various scripts might be viewed as graphic in nature; alternatively,
    one might view them as a combined character, the semantic "0" plus
    the semantic information of a type of script that it appears within.
    There is may thus be more than possible solution.

    >I speak here only as a terminologist, and make this suggestion with no
    >anticipation at all of its being accepted (only to help, if I can).

    As such, I only suggest logical structure, as I am a mathematician. I
    leave it to the linguists to come up with a good classification. In
    general, I think these problems are tricky, and Unicode may need to
    find a way to transition to a better classification. One simple way
    to do that, if the number of available character numbers is
    sufficiently rich, is to merely add these as additional characters
    with a few more property fields.

    -- 
       Hans Aberg
    


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