I would appreciate any constructive input on this future proposal (for CSUR, not Unicode). Doug, do you mind if Tonal is positioned after your Ewellic script (maybe you plan to extend it?) from U+E6D0 to U+E6FF?
Specific questions I have: - Am I using COMBINING correctly? Is it sufficient for fonts to render units properly? - Do I have enough background on the Tonal system itself? It doesn't seem the right place to give all the specific details on how it works, but maybe more would be useful? - Is my usage of HTML <sup> for unit examples appropriate, despite it not rendering *just* right (at least not in my viewer)? - Should TONAL DIGIT NINE be renamed to TONAL HEXADECIMAL DIGIT NINE since it is invalid in a decimal context? - Should I define TONAL HEXADECIMAL DIGIT TEN, even though it looks like Unicode DIGIT NINE (U+0039)? - Should I put "(This position shall not be used)" in reserved positions, or does this mean it shall not be used *ever*? - Is it proper to give glyph examples to TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION/MULTIPLICATION for tran, song, and tam, which Nystrom never explained how specifically they should be written (following his general directions, they would overlap with the division/multiplications for ton and san)? Thanks, LukeTitle: Tonal
Tonal: U+E6D0 - U+E6FF 0.1.alpha1
Proposal 2010-07-
NOTE: This is still a proposed encoding and has not been standardized.
In 1859, John W. Nystrom proposed a hexadecimal (base 16) system of notation, arithmetic, and metrology called the Tonal System. In addition to new weights and measures, his proposal included a new calendar with sixteen months, a new system of coinage, and a hexadecimal clock with sixteen hours in a day.
Digits
The Tonal digits themselves are named, in order and beginning with the English zero, noll, an, de, ti, go, su, by, ra, me, ni, ko, hu, vy, la, po, and fy. Noll (zero) through Me (eight) use the same Arabic glyphs as the decimal system (U+0030 - U+0038). The glyph for Arabic nine (U+0039) is also used for Ko (ten). This script defines new graphs for the digits ni, hu, vy, la, po, and fy.
Units
The Tonal system also defines new units, called meters, galls, tims, pons, horse-powers, dollars, and temps. The abridgement of the units are noted by capital letters (except for temps, which use the digraph Tp), and the multiplication and division of the same as an exponent by a small letter placed before or after the unit, thus, Mt = Meterton, tM = Tonmeter, Gs = Gallsan, Ts = Timsan, Pm = Ponmills, etc. These multiplications and divisions are encoded as combining marks, which can be combined with the standard ASCII letters.
Music
In this system, music is rearranged into five new clefs, called Canto, Alto, Treble, Tenor, and Bass. These new clefs are encoded, and can be used along with the classical musical symbols encoded at U+1D100.
Encoding Structure
The Tonal block is divided into the following ranges:
| U+E6D0 | -> | U+E0DF | Digits |
| U+E6E0 | -> | U+E0EF | Unit multiplications and divisions |
| U+E6F0 | -> | U+E0FF | Musical clefs |
| U+E6D0 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D1 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D2 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D3 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D4 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D5 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D6 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D7 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D8 | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6D9 | TONAL DIGIT NINE |
| U+E6DA | (This position shall not be used) |
| U+E6DB | TONAL HEXADECIAML DIGIT ELEVEN |
| U+E6DC | TONAL HEXADECIAML DIGIT TWELVE |
| U+E6DD | TONAL HEXADECIAML DIGIT THIRTEEN |
| U+E6DE | TONAL HEXADECIAML DIGIT FOURTEEN |
| U+E6DF | TONAL HEXADECIAML DIGIT FIFTEEN |
| U+E6E0 | (This position reserved for future division symbol) |
| U+E6E1 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION TRAN |
| U+E6E2 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION SONG |
| U+E6E3 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION TAM |
| U+E6E4 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION BONG |
| U+E6E5 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION MILL |
| U+E6E6 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION SAN |
| U+E6E7 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT DIVISION TON |
| U+E6E8 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION TON |
| U+E6E9 | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION SAN |
| U+E6EA | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION MILL |
| U+E6EB | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION BONG |
| U+E6EC | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION TAM |
| U+E6ED | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION SONG |
| U+E6EE | TONAL COMBINING UNIT MULTIPLICATION TRAN |
| U+E6EF | (This position reserved for future multiplication symbol) |
| U+E6F0 | TONAL MUSICAL SYMBOL CANTO CLEF |
| U+E6F1 | TONAL MUSICAL SYMBOL ALTO CLEF |
| U+E6F2 | TONAL MUSICAL SYMBOL TREBLE CLEF |
| U+E6F3 | TONAL MUSICAL SYMBOL TENOR CLEF |
| U+E6F4 | TONAL MUSICAL SYMBOL BASS CLEF |
| U+E6F5 | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6F6 | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6F7 | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6F8 | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6F9 | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FA | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FB | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FC | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FD | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FE | (This position reserved) |
| U+E6FF | (This position reserved) |
Copyright © 2010 Luke Dashjr. All Rights Reserved
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