From: Jukka K. Korpela (jkorpela@cs.tut.fi)
Date: Fri Mar 17 2006 - 03:58:04 CST
On Fri, 17 Mar 2006, Michael Everson wrote:
> Indeed, why not just use CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ER as they have done for
> generations?
I've seen several different abbreviations for the rouble in Russian,
including er followed by a period and er, u, be followed by a period
(transliterated as "rub."). Probably er, b, el ("rbl"), too.
Inventing new symbols for currencies does not sound like a good idea, but
it's understandable: people may hope (usually in vain) that a single
symbol unifies notations and that it gives some special identity or
prestige to a currency. After all, the euro got its symbol...
What we can say from a technical viewpoint is that the introduction of any
new currency symbol will surely not unify notations for a long time. Even
in presence of political will and support by common people, it would take
many years before computing systems widely support the new character.
A replacement notation would still be needed, and many people would use it
even in contexts where the character is available. There is still a rather
mixed situation with the euro sign, for example.
-- Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
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