From: Peter Constable (petercon@microsoft.com)
Date: Mon Jan 12 2009 - 00:14:49 CST
From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On Behalf Of Christopher Fynn
>> You don't think the vendors are going to notice that and start
>> playing leapfrog with each other to provide ever wider repertoires?
>
> People are already betting on this happening.
>
> Last night there was a news clip on BBC World showing someone
> demonstrating MS Windows 7 (beta) at Las Vegas...
> the final feature demonstrated, which she claimed was her
> favourite, was the ability to easily add all kinds of little animated
> graphics (looking very much like emoji) to her Live Messenger chat
First, just a clarification: Live Messenger is separate from Windows; the latest version can be installed on whatever version of Windows you're running (well, maybe not if it's Win 95).
> and
> have the colour and display of her message change in response to the
> feeling represented by the included emoji. Now if the marketing
> department of a major company like Microsoft has decided that animated
> graphics/emoji and related features are one of the main selling points
> for the latest version of their flagship software then they have already
> in effect bet huge sums of money on these things proliferating like
> wildfire.
People better check some facts before making conjectures: you've been able to add colour, emoji and "winks" (animated images) to Live Messenger chat messages for a while, but Live Messenger uses RTF, not plain text. So, maybe the things being added to Live chat messages are proliferating (I'd say they are), but not in plain text.
For instance, I added a "wink" of a dancing pig to a LM msg and saved the conversation; here's the rtf:
<messenger test.rtf>
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Segoe UI;}{\f1\fnil Segoe UI;}{\f2\fnil\fcharset0 MS Shell Dlg;}}
{\colortbl ;\red84\green84\blue84;\red51\green51\blue51;\red0\green102\blue204;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green0\blue0;}
{\*\generator Riched20 12.0.6203.3000;}\viewkind4\uc1
\pard\li72\ri18\sb72\tx720\cf1\f0\fs20{\pict\wmetafile0
} Don't include information like passwords or credit card numbers in an instant message.\par
\pard\li72\ri18\tx720\cf0{\pict\wmetafile0
} \par
\cf1 Peter {\pict\wmetafile0
}komen winks:\par
\pard\li277\ri18\tx720\cf2\f1{\pict\wmetafile8\picw1323\pich1323\picwgoal750\pichgoal750
010009000003160000000000050000000000050000000b0200000000050000000c022b052b0503
0000000000
}\par
\cf3\ul\f0 Play "Dancing Pig"\par
\pard\li72\ri18\tx720\cf1\ulnone Peter {\pict\wmetafile0
}komen says:\par
\pard\fi-180\li352\ri18\tx720\cf5{\pict\wmetafile0
}\f1 hi\par
\pard\li72\ri18\tx720\cf1\f0 Lori {\pict\wmetafile0
} says:\par
\pard\fi-180\li352\ri18\tx720\cf5\f2{\pict\wmetafile0
}You silly thang!\cf2\f1\par
}
</messenger test.rtf>
Peter
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