Julian Bradfield wrote:
ISO/IEC 9995-9 cannot be implemented natively on Microsoft Windows;
it requires a third-party add-on package such as Keyman, which is
not free.
I don't understand this remark. Microsoft Windows is not free, so what
does it matter whether there's a free addon or not?
Users and companies often aren't inclined to pay extra for third-party
solutions to problems that are generally perceived to be part of the
operating-system domain, such as keyboard layouts.
If ISO/IEC 9995-9 becomes a standard, then Microsoft will presumably
support it, either themselves or by buying Keyman.
Or they could revamp their keyboard model to support multiple dead keys
and a fifth (and beyond) shift state, and produce (or commission)
physical keyboards with more keys so users could get into those shift
states. But those don't exist today (and Michael Kaplan has blogged
often about the difficulty of changing this model), and meanwhile Karl's
comment seemed to be that support for U+20B9 existed *today* in the
ISO/IEC 9995-9 draft.
Changes in standards don't always translate to commercial support. I
never did find a pre-packaged Windows layout for the common secondary
layout of ISO/IEC 9995-3:2002 (which the new version proudly dubs
"outdated," though the difference seems to be more a matter of less
complete vs. more complete than old-fashioned vs. modern).
If they don't, then there are other operating systems.
Users often don't get to pick their platform, especially in a corporate
environment, and especially for reasons like keyboard support for a
single new character.
Defects in one OS have no relevance for standards - although they may
be a pain for a little while (e.g. Linux' rather slow support for
Unicode).
Anand Kumar Sharma didn't specify a particular vendor, but he asked
about the key position "when new keyboard with rupee symbol will come
into market." He did use the term "U.S.-English keyboard," a term I
suppose is used by all vendors, not just Microsoft. Since changes in
standards don't always translate to commercial support, I answered in
terms of a vendor I was familiar with. Users of other platforms may have
different stories.
--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA
http://www.ewellic.org | @DougEwell
