At 14:04 25.10.2002 +0200, Kent Karlsson wrote:
My wholehearted support!Font makers, please do not meddle with the authors intent (as reflected in the text of the document!). Just as it is inappropriate for font makers to use an ø glyph for ö (they are "the same", just slightly different derivations from "o^e"), it is just as inappropriate for font makers to use a "o^e" glyph for ö (by default in a Unicode font). Though in some sense the "same" they are still different enough for authors to care, and it is up to the document author/editor to decide, not the font maker.
DIN asked for the combining letter small e as well as the other combining small letters specifically to cater for the requirements of scholars in a number of countries, notably Germany. In a large number of editions and scholarly dictionaries, both diacritics, the combining diaeresis and the combining letter e, are used on the very same page, even directly next to each other. The former is used for modern German words, the latter for medieval German words.
The combining letter small e does not even necessarily stand for what today is the umlaut, it may have a number of different interpretations.
For modern and medieval German words, the base font is in these cases the same -- editions are not normally printed in some sort of pseudo-archaic font.
For this reason it is quite impermissible to render the combining letter small e as a diaeresis or, for that matter, the diaeresis as a combining letter small e (however, you see the latter version sometimes, very infrequently, in advertisement).
As to the long s, it is not used for writing present-day German except in rare cases, notably in some scholarly editions and in the Fraktur script. Very few texts beyond the names of newspapers are nowadays produced in Fraktur. To put the long s on the German keyboard would be quite contrary to user requirements -- and if a requirement existed, it would be DIN's job to amend DIN 2137-2 and the upcoming DIN 2137-12 to cater for it.
Best regards,
Marc
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Marc Wilhelm Küster
Saphor GmbH
Fronländer 22
D-72072 Tübingen
Tel.: (+49) / (0)7472 / 949 100
Fax: (+49) / (0)7472 / 949 114
