From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Wed Mar 11 2009 - 09:37:33 CST
On 11 Mar 2009, at 15:21, Peter Constable wrote:
> Those characters certainly can be used for that or other purposes.
> But the user must recognize that implementations will be influenced
> by prior use in Japanese telecoms than possible future uses as
> astrology signs or whatever else. That's the analogy.
You made an analogy to something quite different. Was the first
analogy just bogus, and now you're thinking of better ones? What's the
point? All I'm really doing is saying that a contribution to modify
the UTC emoji proposal is in preparation.
It is hoped that
>> I would imagine that they would be "handled" by the software in being
>> transmitted from one place to another as symbols with symbol
>> properties.
>
> Transmission is not particularly an issue.
You used the word "handled".
> It's anybody's prerogative to display characters in whatever way
> they choose so long as the original semantic is maintained. In the
> case of most characters, a font is almost always used. In the case
> of these characters, the original semantic is defined by a context
> (JPN telecoms) that suggest that, in a large proportion of uses,
> something other than fonts will be used.
Until these get into the UCS and are ordinary coded characters.
> As is true for many other characters in the UCS, these characters
> will always bear the influence of their history. That's Ken's point,
> and I echo it. They are emoji, not arbitrary symbols free of all
> context.
Um, I don't buy this. Do the characters in the Zapf Dingbats block
still "bear the influence" of the fact that they were built into first-
generation laser-printers? Does this affect their use today? I don't
believe you can argue Yes to either question, and I am certain that
these symbols (used currently in Japanese telephony) will also lose
that "influence" as time goes on.
That's the inherent nature of symbols.
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com
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