"Pim Blokland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Hello all,
> I have got a stupid question - that is, the question was asked of me > and I didn't know what to say. > What is ISO 10646? > Usually I can asnwer questions like this by doing an Internet > search, but in this case, I get varying answers: > it is a code page; it is a character set; it is identical to > "Unicode" (that is, the words "ISO 10646" and "Unicode" are > interchangable); it is a paper describing a standard. > So where can I find the "formal" definition and how can I tell that > is the formal definition and why doesn't everybody agree? > Pim Blokland Pim The official JTC1/SC2/WG2 - ISO/IEC 10646 - UCS web page is at: http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/ The ISO/IEC 10646 Standard & The Unicode Standard encode the same set of characters at the same codepoints. There are some differences in the set of characters encoded in the printed versions of these two standards since they get published at different times and different frequencies. The Unicode Standard also says more about properties of the encoded characters than the ISO/IEC 10646 Standard does. Members of the Unicode Technical Committee, responsible for TUS, largely come from Corporations who are members of the Unicode Consortium while members of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 come from technical committees of national standards bodies who are members of ISO and choose to participate. The two groups work pretty closely together - especially on all the work involved in dealing with proposals for new characters and scripts. In my experience some people from non-commercial & government organisations are happier to refer to "ISO/IEC 10646" - but "Unicode" is much easier for most people to remember. - Chris
