Peter Constable wrote as follows. > .... the name is simply a unique identifier within the std.
Well, the Standard is the authority for what is the meaning of the symbol when found in a file of plain text. So if the symbol is in a plain text file before or after the name of a person then the Standard implies a meaning to the plain text file. > A name may be somewhat indicative of it's function, but is not necessarily so. Well, that could ultimately be an issue before the courts in a libel case if someone publishes a text with a symbol next to someone's name. A key issue might well be as to what is the defined meaning of the symbol in the Standard. Certainly, the issue of what a reasonable person seeing that symbol next to someone's name might conclude is being published about the person might well also be important, even if that meaning is not in the Standard. > You could call it WHEELCHAIR SYMBOL, but that engineering of the standard is not also social engineering, and people may still use it to label individuals in a way that may be violating human rights -- we cannot stop that. No matter what we call it, end users are not very likely going to be aware of the name in the standard; they're just going to look for the shape, and if they find it, they'll use it for whatever purpose they chose to. Certainly. Yet a plain text interchangeable file would not have the meaning built into it by the Standard. I agree though that there may well still be great problems. William Overington 26 June 2003
