Private Use Area

Earlier today I posted in a forum, mentioning the Private Use Areas.

I referenced section 16.5 of the following document.

http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.2.0/ch16.pdf

I felt that I needed to write as follows, in order to provide clarity.

quote

There is a lot about what is called "private agreement". That is, I feel a somewhat unfortunate way of explaining the situation. You do not need the agreement of anybody to define your assignments in the Private Use Area. Certainly, if someone then wants to use the font and access an alternate glyph then he or she needs to go along with what you have assigned in order to use the font. To me, that sounds like following the documentation of the font rather than being an agreement.

end quote

It seems to me that the use of the term "private agreement" in section 16.5 does not correctly explain the situation that exists, namely that anyone can assign within quite wide limits what he or she chooses to a Private Use Area codepoint.

Could we discuss please whether it would be a good idea for that section to be reworded?

William Overington

18 February 2013
Received on Mon Feb 18 2013 - 06:53:49 CST