> [Original Message] > From: Michael Everson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Here. Chew on this. :-)
Gladly! > N2760 > Proposal to encode dominoes and other game symbols > Michael Everson > 2004-05-18 > http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2760.pdf Dominoes: I'm not certain that a full 724 set of Dominoes is needed. In plain text, the orientation of a domino would seem to be a matter for the font to specify. The orientation becomes a concern only when the dominoes are laid out as played, and that cannot be represented in plain text. If instead of providing all four orientations, no preferred orientation or only a single orientation were specified, then instead of 724 characters only 191 characters would be required to represent the same variety of dominoes as the proposal calls for. It might be better to consider encoding the pips for 0 to 18. (either in addition to or instead of the bones themselves) Some domino sets (as shown in the proposal) use different colors for different pip values. With the pips available as Unicode characters, it would be trivial to use HTML and CSS to not only create the desired dominoes out of the pips, but place them in any desired orientation and in relation to other dominoes for play. Playing Cards: It is fairly common now for standard decks to include two distinct jokers, and if I remember correctly, there are games which use both jokers and give them different roles. There are even decks with more than two jokers, altho they are hardly standard. To quote from the website Andy's Playing Cards [1]: "... during the first half of the 20th century the Joker cards became two (usually one red and one black, to match the Bowers' colour, but sometimes one with colours and one in black & white). Some decks now have three, or even more." In any case, it looks like at least one additional Joker character will be required if playing cards are encoded, Draughts: No comment. [1] http://www.geocities.com/a_pollett/cardjokr.htm
