On Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:08:14 +0100
Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> adding new variants of existing characters like what was done
> specifically for maths is not a stabl long term solution; solutions
> similar to variant selectors however are much more meaningful, and
> will allow for example to make the distinction between a MIDDLE DOT
> punctuation and an ANO TELEIA, and will also allow them to be rendered
> differently (even if there's no requirement to do so).
What is appealing about the idea of variation selectors in this case is
that one can usually identify the meaning of middle dot from the
context, and therefore deduce the glyph required for high quality
rendering, but in some rare cases one can't. For example, the Catalan
and British decimal point can be interpreted as word-internal separators
(almost a visible CGJ!) and may well truly be the same character, but
the British decimal point very occasionally terminates the number. In
that instance, it would not be distinguishable from ano telia without a
larger context. Would it truly be amazing to find a transliteration of
Greek into the Latin script that preserved Greek pronuciation? U+0964
DEVANAGARI DANDA and U+0965 DEVANAGARI DOUBLE DANDA are used with
classical Indian languages written in the Latin script. It would make
sense to have variation selectors as fallback mechanisms for these rare
cases. It also avoids the upheaval of disunification.
As to the idea of marking semantics, there is the problem that people
will normally not bother. Had anyone tried to assess the usage of CGJ
outside the context of indexes? Is there evidence of conscious
distinction of U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE and U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE
QUOTATION MARK - I imagine the chief source of the latter is
'intelligent quotes' features in word processors. While
computerised grammar checkers may attempt to enforce such rules, many
people just turn them off because the checkers are often wrong.
Richard.
Received on Fri Mar 22 2013 - 11:30:57 CDT
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