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Groups > comp.lang.c > #77867

Re: unicode is a fail

From Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: unicode is a fail
Date 2015-12-05 01:04 +0000
Organization Friends of the Galactic Collective
Message-ID <wFe7nL.cjz.nHu02@gmail.com> (permalink)
References (2 earlier) <n3o36b$ud0$1@dont-email.me> <2qyvC0.96Q.SQT8q@gmail.com> <n3s3tj$8qe$1@dont-email.me> <y51yVe.p8Y.TmUhC@gmail.com> <n3t8h6$3ip$1@dont-email.me>

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On Fri, Dec 04, 2015 at 11:46:52PM +0000, BartC wrote:
> On 04/12/2015 19:17, Steve Thompson wrote:
> >On Fri, Dec 04, 2015 at 01:22:04PM +0000, BartC wrote:
> 
> >>So that is something about Unicode I'm not comfortable with. Our nice
> >>tidy little alphabet (perhaps one of the reasons the West has been ahead
> >>technologically) is swamped by these huge character sets from around the
> >>world, which still don't like being marshalled into neat little units.
> >
> >The West?  Are you forgetting the Europe is also part of "the West"?
> 
> No. But western Europe at least still uses small alphabets, and mostly 
> they are based around A-Z.

Nitpick.  Once the major European languages are included from Spanish
to Finnish and everything in-between, how many code points are left?
 
> >The technological lead of the West is another matter, and I am sorry
> >if you are inconvenienced by the catch-up game underway in other parts
> >of the world.  Greek, APL, formal logic, mathematics, etc. are all
> >sufficiently pervasive that their symbols merit inclusion in any
> >reasonable general-use character set, and on that basis any fixation
> >on English is bound to be terribly short-sighted.
> 
> Fine, then we move to 16 bits, which had long been anticipated anyway, 
> and gives us plenty of room for special symbols. But not if we have to 
> throw in every single alphabet and writing system that anybody has ever 
> heard of (and apparently plenty that no one has heard of!).

I rather suspect the Anthropologists will scream bloody murder if
Egyptian hieroglyphics, Linear B, and all the rest are excluded.
 
> (And then you have vast, sprawling 'alphabets' like Chinese which are 
> words rather than the letters used to build the words.)

So go tell the Chinese (and Japanese, and Thais, and ...) that they
should man-up and use a Western alphabet.  Such schemes exist, after
all.
 
> It just sounds 'off'. It reminds me of those early 'text-mode' displays 
> where, instead of having proper pixel-graphics, some character codes 
> were set aside to display a limited range of pre-determined patterns.
> 
> To be able to display any arbitrary pattern, you need pixel-addressable 
> graphics.
> 
> So we really want a more flexible of specifying any character or symbol 
> without just enumerating every single one can think of.
> 
> (Imagine you were in the position of creating a new font, with a 
> hundreds of thousands of to design! I've done that, but for only 100 
> characters.)

The font weenies will probably figure something out.  This is not my
concern.  Publishers have already invested in the languages they
print.
 
> >Again which languages?  Software I use would be prudent to include the
> >capacity to render English, French, German, Swedish (Scandinavian
> >language generally), Greek, Latin,
> 
> What's special about Latin?

Bad example.  Perhaps Russian is a better choice; I hear it is a great
language for cursing, comrade.  And ignoring prose for the moment,
should people's very names not be representable in their canonical
form?
 
>  as well as the characters
> >appropriate to mathematics symbols and so on.
> 
> And mathematics really requires control over layout. You will probably 
> end up representing formulae in some sort of mark-up language anyway, or 
> you will be writing them using a special editor that might store content 
> in some binary format; whether it uses Unicode is then irrelevant.
> 
> (Actually I've tried using the correct mathematical symbols within 
> programming language syntax, such as × for multiply and ² for squared (y 
> = x²). But it looked too gimmicky, as well as being fiddly to type in.)

Mathematics is a good example, nonetheless.  Then we have physics, all
the unit symbols (degrees Centigrade, ohms, Angstroms, and on and on
and on), and, and and and.  Without complete coverage standards bodies
and software houses are put in the position of picking and choosing
the winners and losers.  Formula markup is a problem as well, but
distinct from representing glyphs, and if you're going to start down
that road we can include diagrams and graphs as well as a supplemental
requirement for representing certain classes of idea.

The general problem at hand is the representation of written
communications, which arguably includes non-textual forms like napkin
scribbles and the like.  Unicode doesn't do anything to help represent
freehand drawing or cave paintings, but so what.  The line must be
drawn somewhere, and I think it is unreasonable to exclude NZ Maori
script merely because so few people actually use it.



Regards,

Steve Thompson

-- 
"If I had a nickel for every time some idiot called me about a
computer problem that turned out to be user error, I would be able to
retire and spend the rest of my days cultivating clues in my backyard
hillside garden."  -- MysteryDog in 24hoursupport.helpdesk.

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Thread

unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 08:01 -0800
  Re: unicode is a fail me <self@example.org> - 2015-12-02 16:12 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 09:09 -0800
  Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-02 08:18 -0800
    Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 09:07 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 11:21 -0600
        Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 09:40 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 11:22 -0800
          Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 15:59 -0600
            Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 16:25 -0800
              Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 19:47 -0600
          Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-02 14:38 -0800
            Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 16:26 -0800
              Re: unicode is a fail Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-09 11:33 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-09 12:21 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 11:28 +0100
          Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-03 08:50 -0600
            Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 16:38 +0100
              Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-03 10:01 -0600
            Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-03 09:46 -0800
            Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-04 12:39 +0000
          Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-03 08:26 -0800
            Re: unicode is a fail glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-03 18:42 +0000
              Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-03 17:14 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-03 19:02 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-04 06:35 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2015-12-28 05:11 -0500
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-04 10:24 -0600
            Re: unicode is a fail Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-12-03 22:37 +0000
              Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-04 11:32 +0100
    Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 11:10 -0600
      Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 09:24 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 13:10 -0600
          Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-02 19:45 +0000
            Re: unicode is a fail Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-12-03 09:08 +1300
            Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 14:10 -0600
      Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 11:27 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 15:21 -0600
          Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 15:18 -0800
            Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-04 12:45 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 09:43 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-02 11:40 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-02 12:19 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Nobody <nobody@nowhere.invalid> - 2015-12-02 21:23 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 10:12 +0100
      Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-03 02:13 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 14:11 +0100
          Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-03 05:17 -0800
            Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 15:33 +0100
              Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-03 07:05 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 16:42 +0100
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-03 07:58 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-03 10:38 +0000
        Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-03 14:17 +0100
      Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-04 12:54 +0000
        Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-04 14:25 +0100
          Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-04 13:46 +0000
  Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 23:24 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-03 00:45 +0000
      Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-02 20:59 -0600
      Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-02 19:13 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-03 07:00 +0000
        Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-04 04:45 -0800
          Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-04 18:04 +0000
        Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-04 13:22 +0000
          Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-04 07:35 -0800
          Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-04 19:17 +0000
            Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-04 11:49 -0800
              Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-04 15:39 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-04 14:19 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-06 12:57 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-06 15:47 -0800
              Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-05 01:13 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-12-05 01:59 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2015-12-05 17:17 +0100
                Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 06:28 +0000
            Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-04 23:46 +0000
              Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-05 01:04 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 03:21 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-05 13:03 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-05 11:47 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 04:40 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-05 13:26 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-05 13:35 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-06 02:23 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Udyant Wig <udyantw@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 16:09 +0530
                Re: unicode is a fail Xavier <zaz.colmant@free.fr> - 2015-12-05 15:45 +0100
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 07:42 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-05 16:32 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 18:11 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-06 02:19 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-06 13:09 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Martin Shobe <martin.shobe@yahoo.com> - 2015-12-06 18:38 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-07 01:55 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-06 19:14 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-12-07 13:53 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-07 06:31 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-12-07 21:22 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-07 15:34 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-07 16:36 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Lowell Gilbert <lgusenet@be-well.ilk.org> - 2015-12-08 11:40 -0500
                Re: unicode is a fail Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-12-08 17:18 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-09 08:36 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-09 10:06 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-09 09:35 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-09 10:07 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-09 12:04 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-09 12:35 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-09 23:46 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-09 16:15 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail glen herrmannsfeldt <gah@ugcs.caltech.edu> - 2015-12-10 03:49 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-09 18:12 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-12-09 13:12 -0500
                Re: unicode is a fail Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-12-09 12:12 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-10 20:48 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-09 23:44 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-12-10 01:13 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-10 10:39 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-10 03:33 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail supercat@casperkitty.com - 2015-12-10 06:07 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-10 08:21 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-12-10 00:59 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-07 14:33 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-06 22:45 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-07 12:38 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-07 13:55 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail BartC <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-12-07 21:14 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-07 16:50 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-12-07 02:38 -0600
                Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 07:34 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-06 00:24 -0800
              Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-04 19:49 -0600
            Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-05 21:32 +0000
              Re: unicode is a fail Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 13:50 -0800
                Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-05 22:15 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-12-05 17:27 -0500
                Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-05 23:06 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-12-05 18:29 -0500
                Re: unicode is a fail Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-12-05 23:50 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 06:38 +0000
                Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-06 13:33 +0000
              Re: unicode is a fail James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-12-05 16:51 -0500
              Re: unicode is a fail Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-12-06 10:59 +1300
                Re: unicode is a fail Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2015-12-06 11:00 +1300
              Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 06:31 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-02 17:48 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-03 01:20 -0800
        Re: unicode is a fail fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2015-12-03 02:02 -0800
    Re: unicode is a fail Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-12-03 09:43 -0600
    Re: unicode is a fail raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-04 12:55 +0000
      Re: unicode is a fail Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-04 18:29 +0000
        Re: unicode is a fail Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-12-05 16:42 +0000
    Re: unicode is a fail Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-12-05 10:06 +0000
      OT: Usenet (Was: unicode is a fail) Steve Thompson <stevet810@gmail.com> - 2015-12-05 20:41 +0000
        Re: OT: Usenet (Was: unicode is a fail) Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-05 13:18 -0800
      Re: unicode is a fail Udyant Wig <udyantw@gmail.com> - 2015-12-06 10:21 +0530
        OT: Facebook (was Re: unicode is a fail) Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2015-12-06 08:51 +0000
          Re: OT: Facebook (was Re: unicode is a fail) raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-12-06 13:45 +0000

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