Re: Hexadecimal digits

From: Doug Ewell (doug@ewellic.org)
Date: Fri Jun 04 2010 - 14:35:15 CDT

  • Next message: Luke-Jr: "Re: Hexadecimal digits"

    "Luke-Jr" <luke at dashjr dot org> wrote:

    > Unicode has Roman numerals and bar counting (base 0); why should base 16 be
    > denied unique characters?

    The Roman numeral characters starting at U+2160 are compatibility
    characters. They exist in Unicode only because they existed in one or
    more of the other character sets used as a source for Unicode, so data
    can be converted between Unicode and the other set without loss.

    People aren't encouraged to use the special Roman numeral characters,
    but rather to write Roman numerals using Basic Latin letters. And yes,
    that means the string "mix" out of context could be an ordinary English
    word or the Roman representation of decimal 1,009. Plain text is full
    of things that get resolved by rudimentary context. Hexadecimal numbers
    are like that.

    A set of hex-digit glyphs like Nystrom's, or like Bruce Martin's (see
    Wikipedia "Hexadecimal"), or any other characters for that matter, would
    have to see much more popularity than this to be considered for formal
    encoding. If you are interested in a writing system that includes
    built-in support for hex digits, see
    http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/ewellic.html . But do not expect
    any part of this writing system, which has been used by maybe four or
    five people, to be a candidate for Unicode either.

    --
    Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | http://www.ewellic.org
    RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 | ietf-languages @ is dot gd slash 2kf0s ­
    


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