Article View: comp.std.internat
Article #537Re: Script Unification [was: Re: Cleanicode]
From: Chiaki Ishikawa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:36
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:36
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I understand (I hope!) Glenn's proposition although I don't agree fully what are in there. But, again, I have to thank him for his easy to understand exposition of important ideas. [I believe now that opposition to CJK unification is maily due to the difference people have about the degree with which to judge if two glyphs are similar enough for unification or not. The question is not black and white. One of my colleage I talked thinks some kind of unification is a good idea. But he also says he can find inconsistent unification in CJK characters.] Now, I thought I knew European scripts as well as an average Japanese college graduate in science [and studied in Canada for one year to top it] ought to know. I took German for two years, and tried to learn Russian and French as extra curricular activity. However, after reading a paragraph in Glenn's posting, I need some inputs to make sure if I understand European scripts. >Of course it is true that CJK unification does have certain costs, >e.g., different implicit sort orders cannot be maintained without >language tags, minor distinctions in the glyphic representation of >CJK character data cannot be made without language tags, and so >forth. However, and this is important to consider, such distinctions >are not maintained by character set standards practices for other >scripts either: the English, German, French, and Spanish alphabets, >all distinct in their ordering rules, all potentially requiring slightly >different glyphic displays, The question is here. I can tell that French c cedille is different from ordinary English c. Or German eszet(?) is different from English s or B. Now, I have no objection to assign different code to c cedille and c or to eszet and the rest of the L/C/G of characters. But, here is the dumb question. Are 'a', 'b', 'c' in English and, say, the similar looking characters in French given slightly different glyphic display under similar circumstances?! I have never thought they would be. I don't know why, but I had the impression from reading the above paragraph and the text which followed that there is a circumstance where 'a', 'b', 'c' in different languages use slightly different glyphic display in different countries. (I mean is there Spanish-style 'a', English-style 'a', and so forth???) Please let me know. I might have missed important assumption held by the users of these languages. Chiaki Ishikawa, Personal Media Corp., MY Bldg, 1-7-7 Hiratsuka, Shinagawa, Tokyo 142, JAPAN. FAX:+81-3-5702-0359, Phone:+81-3-5702-0351 UUNET: ishikawa@personal-media.co.jp
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<C138zr.r3@poel.juice.or.jp> <1jiotjINNj5q@life.ai.mit.edu> <2179@blue.cis.pitt.edu> <1jlojhINNqv3@life.ai.mit.edu>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!sh.wide!wnoc-tyo-news!sranha!anprda!pmcgw!personal-media.co.jp From: ishikawa@personal-media.co.jp (Chiaki Ishikawa) Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: Re: Script Unification [was: Re: Cleanicode] Message-ID: <ISHIKAWA.93Jan22203618@ds5200.personal-media.co.jp> Date: 22 Jan 93 11:36:04 GMT References: <C138zr.r3@poel.juice.or.jp> <1jiotjINNj5q@life.ai.mit.edu> <2179@blue.cis.pitt.edu> <1jlojhINNqv3@life.ai.mit.edu> Sender: news@pmcgw.personal-media.co.jp Reply-To: ishikawa@personal-media.co.jp Organization: Personal Media Corp., Tokyo Japan Lines: 49 Nntp-Posting-Host: ds5200 In-reply-to: glenn@muesli.ai.mit.edu's message of 21 Jan 93 08:58:25 GMT X-Md4-Signature: 3907e450aebcdeaf2f7b6802e3c547a4