Berthold K.P. Horn <bkph@ai.mit.edu> wrote:
> I believe they [i.e., the Unicode Consortium] now consider the `combining
> accents' a mistake.
Totally false.
The eighth Unicode Design Principle is Dynamic Composition, which
entails the use of combining characters with base characters to
create composite forms (such as accented letters).
The Unicode Standard allows for the dynamic composition of
accented forms. Combining characters used to create composite
forms are productive. Because the process of character
composition is open-ended, new forms with modifying marks may be
created from a combination of base characters followed by
combining characters.
("The Unicode Standard", Version 2.0, p. 2-9)
In the following section, "Equivalent Sequence", it says:
Common precomposed forms such as U+00DC LATIN CPITAL LETTER U
WITH DIAERESIS are included for compatibility with current
standards.
Chapter 5, "Implementation Guidelines," includes substantial
sections on non-spacing marks (i.e., combining characters).
Non-spacing marks have been used by libraries in their data processing
since 1968. The inclusion of combining characters in the Unicode Standard
was based on technical considerations, but libraries are a user group that
needs these characters.
-- Joan Aliprand
Senior Analyst, Research Libraries Group
Chair, Unicode Technical Committee
To: UNICODE@UNICODE.ORG
cc: BKPH@AI.MIT.EDU
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