On 5/31/2012 12:07 PM, Karl Pentzlin wrote:
Am Donnerstag, 31. Mai 2012 um 20:09 schrieb John H. Jenkins:
JHJ> <tongue-in-cheek>
JHJ> ... that because some
JHJ> countries have currency symbols with decidated code points, other
JHJ> countries will make *new* currency symbols and demand that *they*
JHJ> get dedicated code points ...
Seriously speaking, flag symbols and currency signs are completely
different topics.
Every country has exactly one flag, right now.
But not all of these flags are used in writing - right now.
This is similar to not all currencies having a "symbol".
There's nothing wrong with encoding a subset and leaving the door open
for additions - there's no reason to jump to encoding hundreds of
concrete cloth and thread "symbols" without any indication that they are
used in text. Or is there?
Also, for those of you not residing in North America, a point of
information: the state flags of the 50 states of the USA are flown
widely - if not as widely as the federal flag, and the accompanying
symbols and designs (including seals) are widely used in publications.
So, there's not a simple 1 country : 1 flag principle here - if you look
at actual usage, there's a wide variety of practices.
A./
Thus, in fact an
encoding proposal proposing only a few of them based on an
arbitrary collection made by some telephone companies without proving
any scrutiny for its making never can be acceptable for most national
bodies represented in ISO.
On the other hand, currencies may exist without a currency symbol
(as in fact most currencies do). In fact, all currency symbols
assigned to currencies valid today are included in Unicode now, with
only two exceptions after acceptance for the new Turkish Lira sign:
AZN Azerbaijan Manat (waiting for confirmation of its actual use),
ANG Netherlands Antillean guilder (used formerly mostly for NLG Dutch
guilder which was valid until 2002; problematically unified with
U+0192 LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK; see
http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3588.pdf )
On this base, nobody will request the addition of other symbols
as precondition for acceptance for any new currency sign on ballot.
- Karl
