From: Marco Cimarosti (marco.cimarosti@essetre.it)
Date: Fri Mar 19 2004 - 05:34:28 EST
Jon Wilson wrote:
> I disagree that the anarchy symbol is not a character used in the
> representation of words. I can write a word beginning with "A" with
> either a simple LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A, or with an Anarchy symbol, or
> with an existing CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A.
You can also write an "M" using the Macdonald logo (I have seen it on actual
Macdonald's advertising), or an "I" using a jumping table lamp (I have seen
it in a cartoon by Pixar).
But we don't need to allocate Unicode code points for the Macdonald logo or
for a jumping table lamp, do we?
Such things are not independent letters, but just graphic variations of the
ordinary letters "A", "M", "I", made with the purpose of adding some kind of
overtone (ideological, commercial, humoristic).
> I also disagree that the Anarchy symbol has no use within a
> text. I do not doubt that I can find examples of published
> texts where the anarchy symbol is used throughout. Beware of
> saying "that isn't real text" just because the character
> isn't currently in Unicode. The code should represent usage,
> not the other way round. I understand that finding such
> text is probably crucial to a successful application.
Yes, I think that this is THE very point that you have to demonstrate before
filing your proposal. And I bet that the success of your proposal will
depend almost entirely on how good this demonstration is.
The point is not so much to demonstrate that the symbol exists (that's quite
obvious: we've all seen it), or that it is unique (that's quite obvious too,
IMHO: it is both graphically and semantically different from the current
Unicode circled A): the point is to demonstrate that it is *TEXT*, i.e. that
some piece of text could not be encoded without it.
I am a subscriber of at least two anarchist magazines (printed on *paper*,
so Unicode digital encodings are not at issue here), and I don't recall
having ever seen an "anarchy" symbol used *within* the body text of these
magazines. For sure, the symbol is ubiquitous *near* the text: it is used as
a logo on the magazines' title or in third party's advertising; it is used
as typographic decoration; it appears on the flags in the photos of rallies
and demonstrations... But, as far as I can recall, it is never uses as part
of a sentence.
Of course, knowing about your proposal, I will look with doubled attention
all next issues, and I will send you any specimen of the symbol used as
text. But I am quite skeptical.
_ Mâ’¶rco
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