Ar 15:33 +0000 2004/03/18, scr�obh Arcane Jill:This probably is going to sound like a really dumb question, but ... Is the BMP being saved for something?
...
Arcane Jill
There are never any dumb questions, Jill, only dumb answers.
Oh, sometimes there are both.
BMP is part of 10646-speak, and probably part of pre-Unicode terminology.
This is incorrect. "BMP" means "Basic Multilingual Plane" and is the name given to the plane designated by the code positions 00000-0FFFF. It is not "10646-speak". It is part of the architectural nomenclature of the Universal Character Set.
The decision to create the BMP dates back to a time when certain software suppliers were complaining that anthing approaching a full implementation of ISO 10646 (later transmuted, so to speak, into Unicode) would be too big for them to handle, and too costly.
This is incorrect. The BMP has always been part of ISO/IEC [sic] 10646. It was not "introduced" for the purposes stated here.
Small local groups, such as ours, were then working rapidly and painlessly mostly on national and international character sets on far smaller scales.
Before the advent of the Universal Character Set, this is what everyone was forced to do.
I recall chairing some discussion at a CEN workshop, possibly in Slovenia, in re something related, at the height of the debate. In any case, by that time, CEN had already emerged as a big player in this work (I think Unicode had yet to make much of a mark, but I don't mind if someone corrects me about that, if wrong, because it really doesn't matter now, in the least).
The CEN was never "a big player" as such. The Slovenian conference was entitled "Providing Multilingual Support in Middleware: Implementing the Universal Character Set ISO/IEC 10646 in the European Information Society" and was sponsored by DG3 and CEN/TC304 and held in Bled in November 1996. At that time, I was Ireland's appointed CEN/TC304 representative. Marion attended the conference, but I do not believe that it is correct that she "chaired" a session there.
Anyway, it was agreed to divide ISO 10646 into sections, such as BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane) and the MES (Minimum European Subset), and my own company, among others, was very pleased to be hired by CEN to do the necessary (a truly exciting and rewarding period, when we actually got_paid_, generously, if belatedly, for such Standards work!)
This is incorrect. ISO/IEC [sic] 10646 was never "divided into sections, such as BMP and the MES". Since Marion, again, wishes to stress to readers of this list that "her company" with its abundant expertise was hired by CEN to work on the MES subset and the Alpha project, it should be pointed out that it is I, Michael Everson, who actually did the work as formally-appointed editor of these CEN/ISSS projects. The "belated" payment for that work on the Alpha project would have been paid after I had ended my business relationship with Marion; it is true that "her company" will have had the benefit of the "generous" payment received for the work which I, and no other member of "her company", actually did. (I am appalled at having to say this, but I am astonished to see Marion bring this up and try to take credit for my work and expertise. The money should have been more than enough.)
Is the BMP a reality, actually referenced in software, or scheduled to be so referenced in future?
Yes, it is.
I doubt it,
Well, there you go.
although I think that would be a very good thing (just as I believe the 8859 series and the like more practially useful, even today, as clean-cutting tools, than the full complement of 10646, which remains a rather blunt instrument which creates obstacles in unflagged text).
All this goes to show is that Marion lacks understanding and experience with Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. (It would be a good thing if all text were tagged [sic] to indicate the character set, of course.)
Justification for saving the BMP for the purposes originally intended is probably something the Unicode Consortium would be happy to clarify for you.
As one of the authors of the Unicode Standard, and chief editor of the Roadmaps, I can answer by explaining to Jill that the Basic Multilingual Plane is where the most frequently-used scripts and characters are allocated. Characters in the other Supplementary Multilingual Plane are mostly, but not entirely, lesser-used scripts and historical scripts; there are also some symbols and other things encoded there. The Supplementary Ideographic Plane contains ideographs. The Supplementary Special-purpose Plane contains nothing of much consequence.
Perhaps that has already been done in some of today's e-mails, which are too numerous for me to read right now, under pressure of urgent work. (I do promise to try to read them all.)
Feel free to spend all of your time on urgent work, Marion. Tooting your own horn (at my expense) and providing inaccurate information to others on this forum is, in my opinion, not a very good use of your time or ours.
If you want more info on the purpose and genesis of the BMP, I suggest that you ask NSAI to let you study the archives of NSAI/AGITS/WG6 (later transmuted into NSAI/ICTSCC/SC4), or thou send a simple query directly to CEN (on whose live agenda such matters remain, I believe).
This is both inappropriate and incorrect. Marion is not a member of NSAI/ICTSCC/SC4, and has no business suggesting anything about that subcommittee or its "archives". And CEN/TC304 is dormant at best, so Marion's belief is unjustified. Further, neither of these groups has special information regarding "the purpose and genesis of the BMP".
Hope this helps, mg
ps. Would someone just hit reply to this msg, to time our comms here? There seems to be a long timelag between sending and delivery of Unicode list msgs, sometimes.
Not long enough.
At 01:14 +0100 2001-09-21, Marion Gunn wrote:
Gu�onn Marion agus Michael d� ch�ile, d� gcustaim�ir� agus d� lucht teagmh�la i gc�in agus i gc�ngar sl�inte, sonas agus s�an, agus d�il mh�r i ngach c�im d� rince f�in feasta.
Michael and Marion wish each other, and all of their contacts and customers at home and abroad health, happiness, prosperity, and enthusiasm to go ahead with their own dance.
For my part, I was happy enough to accept this text as a joint declaration in September 2001. My "dance" is here, where my dharma leads me to try to do my best to help add new scripts and characters to the Universal Character Set. Where Marion's "dance" is, I cannot say. I don't think that it is here.
In two days' time it will be two and a half years since I left "EGT". I would appreciate it, Marion, if you would ring your ISP and instruct them to permanently disable my old e-mail addresses, as I have asked you to do regularly over the intervening period.
M�s f�or go ngu�onn t� sonas agus s�an dom. -- Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com
