Eric Scace asked: > At the risk of re-triggering yet another "what is a character" > discussion... Have meteorological symbols been considered for > incorporation in Unicode? (A search of the archives did not turn > up any discussion.)
Not per se. And yes, this will trigger another "what is a character" discussion, I fear. > > The set of symbols in use has been standardized for many decades > by the World Meteorological Organization. Can you point us to a specific document? http://www.wmo.ch lists hundreds of publications, but nothing that I could see or search for easily that points to a standard for meteorological symbols. Also, you need to take into account that whatever the WMO may state about this in a standard document may or may not reflect computer practice reflected in fonts, other character encodings, and actual practice around the world. > The total set is > around 150 characters. ^^^^^^^^^^ symbols Unless the WMO has promulgated a *character* encoding standard that we don't know about, the fact that there is a standard list of some 150 images for symbols begs the question whether these are characters or not. ISO has *many* standards for symbols and icons of various sorts. They clearly do not all constitute characters. > However, some are already available in Unicode in various locations > (arrows, simple thunderstorm symbol, > lightning, and other glyphs which can be re-applied in their > meteorological context such as various kinds of fog)... and some others > can be decomposed in a manner similar to basic letters and > diacritical marks. Point the UTC to the set of 150 things standardized by the WMO, and let the debate begin. --Ken > > Thanks for your kind assistance. > > -- Eric Scace
