I wrote previously:
I am not suggesting that a piece of software trying to read a plain unicode
text document would need to look things up at a registry nor then access
the internet. Such a piece of software would just work using a local file.
Peter Constable asked:
How do you get that local file? How do you know where to get it, and merely
the fact that your supposed to look for it? That's part of what's involved
in your suggestion of a registry, and my real point is that at some point
you and I have to have a prior agreement.
I reply:
The local file is the file of unicode plain text that the software is trying
to read.
The prior agreement that the original author of the file of unicode plain
text needs to have with the person seeking to read that file of unicode
plain text need not be between the two people directly.
For example, in everyday use of the English language, if I write the word
horse then you have a knowledge of what that word means, even though you and
I as individuals have not agreed with each other what the word means. That
is because the word is a very well known part of the vocabulary of English.
I feel that a simple method is needed so that if a file of plain unicode
text is being processed by a computer and the file contains character codes
from the private use area then there is a straighforward way for the
computer system doing the processing to find out the meanings of those
characters from the private use area that are being used using information
contained within the file itself.
There are, I suggest, essentially two broad classes of ways to achieve this
result. One class is of ways that are defined within the private use areas
themselves, the other class is of ways that have some assistance from one or
more codes that are not in the private use area.
I have, thus far, suggested only a way that is entirely within the private
use area itself. Others have suggested the use of a private use area
interpretation tag, which would require the Unicode Consortium to help solve
the problem.
I like the idea of the tags, I feel that that approach would be far more
flexible than the system that I first suggested. However, there have been
various reasons given as to why the use of tags could be a problem.
Accordingly I am now making a suggestion as to how to proceed and will start
a derived thread to state it.
William Overington
25 April 2001
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