On Sat, Apr 1, 2017 at 12:57 PM, Christoph Päper <
christoph.paeper_at_crissov.de> wrote:
> Michael Everson <everson_at_evertype.com>:
> >
> > Variation Sequences have been implemented for a number of symbol
> characters
> > recently to make them useful for specialized purposes.
>
> This is were I still suspected there was an April Fools joke coming up.
>
> > Here is a proposal which solves a long-standing problem for an important
> set
> > of symbols in the UCS.
>
> # Chesspiece on white versus Chesspiece on black variation sequences
> 25A1 FE00; White chessboard square; # WHITE SQUARE
> 25A8 FE01; Black chessboard square; # SQUARE WITH UPPER RIGHT TO LOWER
> LEFT
> FILL
> 2654 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS KING
> 2654 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS KING
> 2655 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS QUEEN
> 2655 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS QUEEN
> 2656 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS ROOK
> 2656 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS ROOK
> 2657 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS BISHOP
> 2657 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS BISHOP
> 2658 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS KNIGHT
> 2658 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS KNIGHT
> 2659 FE00; Chesspiece on white; # WHITE CHESS PAWN
> 2659 FE01; Chesspiece on black; # WHITE CHESS PAWN
> 265A FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS KING
> 265A FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS KING
> 265B FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS QUEEN
> 265B FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS QUEEN
> 265C FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS ROOK
> 265C FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS ROOK
> 265D FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS BISHOP
> 265D FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS BISHOP
> 265E FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS KNIGHT
> 265E FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS KNIGHT
> 265F FE00; Chesspiece on white; # BLACK CHESS PAWN
> 265F FE01; Chesspiece on black; # BLACK CHESS PAWN
> 26C0 FE00; Draughts piece on white; # WHITE DRAUGHTS MAN
> 26C0 FE01; Draughts piece on black; # WHITE DRAUGHTS MAN
> 26C1 FE00; Draughts piece on white; # WHITE DRAUGHTS KING
> 26C1 FE01; Draughts piece on black; # WHITE DRAUGHTS KING
> 26C2 FE00; Draughts piece on white; # BLACK DRAUGHTS MAN
> 26C2 FE01; Draughts piece on black; # BLACK DRAUGHTS MAN
> 26C3 FE00; Draughts piece on white; # BLACK DRAUGHTS KING
> 26C3 FE01; Draughts piece on black; # BLACK DRAUGHTS KING
>
> □ U+25A1 and, especially, ▨ U+25A8 for empty fields on a board make no
> sense.
> U+25A8 always shows as diagonals from the lower left to the upper right
> (much
> like a forward slash /). Black fields are often hatched this way, but
> could also
> be shown with a solid fill ■ U+25A0, a reverse diagonal fill ▧ U+25A7, a
> diamond
> pattern (diagonal crosshatch) ▩ U+25A9, a square pattern (orthogonal
> crosshatch)
> ▦ U+25A6, a vertical pattern ▥ U+25A5 or a horizontal pattern ▤ U+25A4.
Technically any of those shadings would be understood (and I doubt if
anyone would notice if the lines ran in the other diagonal direction), but
in practice dark squares in typeset diagrams are almost invariably hatched
in the bottom left to top right direction. Diagrams in image form may use
solid color fill, but that's not relevant to Unicode: this proposal is
meant to provide a standardized basis for the existing practice of
typesetting chess diagrams in black-and-white text, not to supplant images.
> I suggest you adopt a space character instead, e.g. U+2003 Em Space or
> U+2001 Em
> Quad.
>
> 2003 FE00; White chessboard square; # EM SPACE
> 2003 FE01; Black chessboard square; # EM SPACE
>
> 2001 FE00; White chessboard square; # EM QUAD
> 2001 FE01; Black chessboard square; # EM QUAD
>
> □ U+25A1, ▢ U+25A2 or ⬚ U+2B1A would also work if you wanted a minimal
> amount of
> ink but not none.
>
> 25A1 FE00; White chessboard square; # WHITE SQUARE
> 25A1 FE01; Black chessboard square; # WHITE SQUARE
>
> 25A2 FE00; White chessboard square; # WHITE SQUARE WITH ROUNDED CORNERS
> 25A2 FE01; Black chessboard square; # WHITE SQUARE WITH ROUNDED CORNERS
>
> 2B1A FE00; White chessboard square; # DOTTED SQUARE
> 2B1A FE01; Black chessboard square; # DOTTED SQUARE
>
> You should also evaluate a different approach altogether:
>
> 20DE FE00; Combining white chessboard square; # COMBINING ENCLOSING
> SQUARE
> 20DE FE01; Combining black chessboard square; # COMBINING ENCLOSING
> SQUARE
>
> 20DE FE00; Combining white background; # COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE
> 20DE FE01; Combining black background; # COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE
>
> Although one would need to combine it with a space character as a base for
> empty
> fields, this would require only two new entries in
> StandardizedVariants.txt and
> be more flexible regarding alternate (Fairy Chess) game pieces
COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE already has its own uses in fairy chess
problems, to mark pieces with additional properties (such as paralyzing
pieces or magic pieces) or transient identities (chameleons and
half-neutrals). It would not be appropriate for this purpose.
> including emojis.
>
No chess symbols, encoded or proposed, are emoji, nor should they be.
Received on Sat Apr 01 2017 - 15:42:22 CDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Sat Apr 01 2017 - 15:42:22 CDT