Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Asmus Freytag via Unicode]

  
  
On 7/8/2017 12:28 PM, Richard
  Wordingham via Unicode wrote:


  On Sat, 8 Jul 2017 09:04:39 -0700
Asmus Freytag via Unicode  wrote:


  
But some handling
of combining mark (and also the new emoji sequences) would equally
constitute "basic" knowledge, with the Unicode algorithms like
sorting,

  
  
Which major applications actually use the Unicode Collation Algorithm
for sorting, that is for the key comparison part? ICU doesn't.

Richard.



That's an interesting question, but not
necessarily a reason not to use it as a basis for teaching about
locale-dependendent sorting. Most students wouldn't continue
designing or implementing such an algorithm, but many may write
software that uses (or should) use something that's functionally
equivalent to UCA (even if different in details).
A./

  

Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Richard Wordingham via Unicode]

On Sat, 8 Jul 2017 09:04:39 -0700
Asmus Freytag via Unicode  wrote:

> But some handling
> of combining mark (and also the new emoji sequences) would equally
> constitute "basic" knowledge, with the Unicode algorithms like
> sorting,

Which major applications actually use the Unicode Collation Algorithm
for sorting, that is for the key comparison part? ICU doesn't.

Richard.

Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Asmus Freytag via Unicode]

  
  
On 7/8/2017 3:36 AM, Otto Stolz via
  Unicode wrote:

Übung
  Unicode
Thanks, it's been too long.
Anyway, I tried it, and the top search page
yielded at least one programming exercise for UTF-8. That's the
minimum level of Unicode proficiency that I would expect from CS
students. But some handling of combining mark (and also the new
emoji sequences) would equally constitute "basic" knowledge, with
the Unicode algorithms like sorting, line break, bidi etc covering
the next layer. Not yet seen any indication that there's instruction
devoted to them.
Non-ASCII Unicode code values are tested in
conjunction with mathematical chess and other symbols in some
exercises, which renders them culturally more neutral.
  
A./

  

RE: Tilde (was: Unicode education in UK Schools)

[Jonathan Rosenne via Unicode]

Hello,

To be precise, this is the COMBINING TILDE not the character TILDE (U+007E).

Best Regards,

Jonathan Rosenne



-Original Message-
From: Unicode [mailto:unicode-boun...@unicode.org] On Behalf Of Otto Stolz via 
Unicode
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2017 1:33 PM
To: unicode@unicode.org
Subject: Tilde (was: Unicode education in UK Schools)



Hello,



am 2017-07-07 um 17:14 Uhr hat William_J_G Overington geschrieben:

> I found that the character a tilde as I now know it to be called is only used 
> in Portuguese.



Just for the record:



“Ô is used in Portuguese, Kashubian;

“Ñ” is used in Galician, Spanish, Mirandese, Catalan (only for Spanish loan 
words), even English (for Spanish loan words), Breton (in Peurunvan spelling), 
Basque; “Õ” is used in Estonian, Livonian (extinct since 2013); “Ȭ” is used in 
Livonian; “Ũ” is used in Mirandese.



I have only considered European official, and regional, languages.



Cheers,

   Otto

Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Otto Stolz via Unicode]

Hello,

am 2017-07-07 um 20:45 Uhr hat Asmus Freytag geschrieben:
I also checked whether there are accessible homework assignments that 
mention Unicode ("Hausaufgabe Unicode"). I didn't go very deep, but it 
seems that it's not untypical to relegate Unicode to a sidebar, 
explaining the "\u" notation and mentioning that you get ASCII if you 
set the upper byte to 0 (in a UTF-16 string, as supported by Java etc.).


Try also “Übung Unicode”.

Best wishes,
   Otto

Tilde (was: Unicode education in UK Schools)

[Otto Stolz via Unicode]

Hello,

am 2017-07-07 um 17:14 Uhr hat William_J_G Overington geschrieben:

I found that the character a tilde as I now know it to be called is only used 
in Portuguese.


Just for the record:

“Ô is used in Portuguese, Kashubian;
“Ñ” is used in Galician, Spanish, Mirandese, Catalan (only for Spanish 
loan words), even English (for Spanish loan words), Breton (in Peurunvan 
spelling), Basque;

“Õ” is used in Estonian, Livonian (extinct since 2013);
“Ȭ” is used in Livonian;
“Ũ” is used in Mirandese.

I have only considered European official, and regional, languages.

Cheers,
  Otto

Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Rebecca T via Unicode]

> That might be a good thing.

Yeah. Very seriously, it’s very important to introduce Unicode early on in
CS
education, even in a “hey, it’s not OK to exclude people who don’t speak
English or people whose names have diacritics from using the programs you
create” sort of way.

Ignorance and apathy for the world’s citizens is a terrible thing and I hope
that every year brings more access to tech, Unicode-enabled and ready, to
more
of humanity.


On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 3:55 PM, Doug Ewell via Unicode 
wrote:

> Asmus Freytag wrote:
>
> > I've not (yet) located any assignments that try to address any of the
> > "tricky" issues in the use of Unicode.
>
> That might be a good thing. Many introductory lessons or chapters or
> talks about Unicode dive almost immediately into the complexities and
> weirdnesses, much more so than with other technical topics. This scares
> newbies and they walk away thinking every aspect of Unicode is complex
> and weird.
>
> --
> Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org
>
>

Re: Unicode education in UK Schools

[Andre Schappo via Unicode]

Interesting. Thanks Asmus.

So what of other countries? Anyone on this list from China, Japan, Korea, 
Russia, Thailand ...etc... What is the situation in your countries with respect 
to Unicode education in your country's Schools, Colleges and Universities?

TIA

André Schappo

> On 7 Jul 2017, at 19:45, Asmus Freytag via Unicode  
> wrote:
> 
> I performed a quick search "Informatik und Unicode" to see whether I could 
> find documents from German academic institutions discussing Unicode in the 
> context of computer science (Informatik).
> 
> Among the first page of search results I found a number of summaries and 
> presentations that may have been (or possibly are) usable as introductory 
> lectures.
> 
> One item looked like it could have been intended as source material for 
> secondary schools rather than for use in the University.
> 
> I also checked whether there are accessible homework assignments that mention 
> Unicode ("Hausaufgabe Unicode"). I didn't go very deep, but it seems that 
> it's not untypical to relegate Unicode to a sidebar, explaining the "\u" 
> notation and mentioning that you get ASCII if you set the upper byte to 0 (in 
> a UTF-16 string, as supported by Java etc.).
> 
> I've not (yet) located any assignments that try to address any of the 
> "tricky" issues in the use of Unicode.
> 
> A./
> 
> 
> On 7/7/2017 2:02 AM, Andre Schappo via Unicode wrote:
>> 
>> There is some evidence that Unicode is now being introduced to Computer 
>> Science pupils in UK Schools. Hove Park School give a summary of their 
>> Computer Science curriculum for Years 8 and 9 
>> http://www.hovepark.brighton-hove.sch.uk/department/computer-science
>> 
>> From Year 9 curriculum summary:  "• Students code text into binary using 
>> ASCII and understand the limitations of this and the need for Unicode"
>> 
>> I think it unlikely they give much coverage of Unicode at Hove Park School 
>> but it is a promising start. Personally I am much encouraged, as Computer 
>> Science education in the UK, at all levels, continues to be dominated by 
>> ASCII.
>> 
>> …and…
>> 
>> as part of my continuing endeavours to get Computer Science/IT/ICT 
>> Internationalization on the School/College/University curricula I recently 
>> setup a google discussion forum 
>> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/computer-science-curriculum-internationalization
>>  
>> 
>>  If you know of any academics who might be interested please do let them 
>> know of this new forum. Unicode is, of course, a fundamental building block 
>> for internationalization and so should feature prominently in Computer 
>> Science teaching, at all levels.
>> 
>> André Schappo
>> 
>