🚀 go-pugleaf

All,
I'm interested in converting between X's KEYSYMs and Unicode, and have
some questions (below).  I'm new to the Unicode world, so please bear with me.

0. How is Unicode different from X's KEYSYM standard (aside from being
   more extensive)?  What are the fundamental technical differences?
   Unicode is a 16-bit encoding, and with one exception, X's KEYSYM std.
   uses a 32-bit encoding with the upper 16-bits zero.

1. One difference in philosophy I can see is this:  Unicode is a std. for
   _character_ symbols, while KEYSYMs are a std. for _keyboard_ symbols.
   So, KEYSYMs include codes for "Shift", "Caps_Lock", "Shift_Lock", 
   "Alt_R", "Alt_L", "Meta", "F1", "F2", ... "F10", "Do", "Select",
   "Print_Screen", and "Up_Arrow".  As far as I can tell, Unicode does
   not attempt to represent these, yet Unicode _does_ include codes for
   the traditional ASCII control-chars (NUL, SOH, STX, ETX, ..., BEL, 
   BackSpace, ..., LineFeed, VertTab, FormFeed, CarriageReturn ).

1a. If Unicode includes codes for "BackSpace", shouldn't it include codes
   for more exotic functions such as "Alt_L" or "Meta"?  If not, perhaps
   Unicode shouldn't include "BackSpace" either...
   Do the Unicode standard-makers see including "non-printable" chars such
   "BackSpace" as a "good thing" or as a necessary evil?

1b. Is the area of "keyboard symbols" too broad to make a reasonable 
   standard? (Comments from anyone with KEYSYM experience would be very 
   welcome).  In this case, I'm thinking about Unicode not in a traditional
   sense (as a code for interchange between application programs),
   but as a code for interchange between applications and keyboards
   ("symbol-oriented devices").
   Can we write sophisticated Unicode-based applications w/o a standard
   encoding for "FunctionKey1" or "Insert"?

1c. Is it possible to build a Unicode to KEYSYM translator? 
   (I realize some loss of information is bound to occur since the KEYSYM
   std. can't represent all the characters which Unicode can.  I'm most 
   interested in handling of keyboard-symbols such as "Shift").

1d. Is the reverse translation possible (KEYSYM to Unicode)?
   (I think the answer here is "yes").

	-(Thanx for any help) MarkS

Mark Shepard
DEC's Workstation Systems Engineering, Palo Alto
shepard@decpa.pa.dec.com || shepard@gatekeeper.dec.com
+1.415.853.6685