From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Jan 24 2008 - 09:23:00 CST
On 1/24/2008 2:20 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> In http://www.icann.org/topics/idn/idn-glossary.htm, one can find:
>
>
>> Unicode
>>
>
>
>> Unicode is a commonly used single encoding scheme that provides a
>> unique number for each character across a wide variety of languages
>> and scripts. The Unicode standard contains tables that list the
>> "code points" (unique numbers) for each local character
>> identified. These tables continue to expand as more and more
>> characters are digitalized.
>>
>
> Is it really a good idea to define Unicode as an *encoding scheme*?
> (Specially since there are several official encoding schemes of
> Unicode and many unofficial.)
>
> Using http://www.unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html may be a
> better start. I suggest "Unicode is a commonly used character set
> that..."
>
> To quote the glossary in the Standard:
>
> Character Encoding Scheme. A character encoding form plus byte serialization. There are
> seven character encoding schemes in Unicode: UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE,
> UTF-32, UTF-32BE, and UTF-32LE.
>
>
>
FYI: the online glossary at http://www.unicode.org/glossary/#unicode
takes another tack altogether by providing a recently updated high-level
definition of Unicode for general audiences. The updated definition
deliberately avoids specific technical terms, such as code points and
code table, to make it accessible to non-technical audiences.
A./
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