From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Fri May 04 2007 - 09:36:09 CST
At 15:20 +0200 2007-05-04, Frank Ellermann wrote:
>I did, and the number of "capital ß" presented in this memo is zero.
>If I'd write GROSZES@ESZETT.INVALID on a tombstone the "@" is still
>an "@" and not a "capital @".
"@" isn't a letter, although it contains one. The
sharp s is a letter, like "w", derived of an
original ligature between "s" and "z". It has
*acquired* typographic case, and its shape
typically has a greater width and is often of a
different shape than its lower-case parent.
>Yes, it's irresponsible and harmful,
>misrepresenting an ordinary ß in various
>contexts of capital letters as a fictitious
>"capital ß".
As a type designer I maintain, with the
proposers, that the design of the capital in
those examples is in fact different from "an
ordinary ß".
>The interesting glyph on these pages is the old long-s z ligature,
>not the (roughly) long-s Z ligature used as "ß". Everybody is free
>to use a slighly larger version of lower case letters or a slightly
>smaller version of upper case letters for some nice visual effects,
>but that's no new character.
Using a slightly larger version of it in an
all-caps context is evidence of the acquisition
of a typographic case pair. (It is not at present
a formally orthographic case pair and may never
be one.)
>That's not the case, and it would result in some "worldwide upgrade"
>madness, not limited to "permitting" ß in IDNAbis for domain labels
>after it suddenly got a fictitious "upper case" companion.
The rules for normative German orthography and
domain labels may never recognize this character.
The fact that there is a normative German
orthography and domain labels which do not
consider a capital ß is **not** justification for
refusing to encode the character, which has been
demonstrated to exist to the satisfaction of a
good many people who work in the area of
character set technology.
>Well, the person who has signed this proposal works for the German
>Home Office. I'll try to ask them why they wish to spend billions
>for the software upgrades required for this obscure dupe of "ß".
Normative case-mapping is not affected by the
addition of this character. It would not be
unless there were a normative and obligatory
orthographic reform which paired ss-SS and ß-*B
with explicit round-trip requirement. It is
unlikely that this would happen in the
foreseeable future.
-- Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com
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