On 7/10/2012 4:57 AM, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
2012-07-10 13:50, Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
Asmus Freytag, Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:32:47 -0700:
[…]
The proper thing to do would be to add these usages to the list of
examples of known contextually defined usages of punctuation
characters, they are common enough that it's worth pointing them out
in order to overcome a bit of the inherent bias from Anglo-Saxon
usage.
[…]
Where do I find the (existing) examples? In the PDF version of the
spec?
I’m not sure what Asmus meant, but I have thought that we are
primarily discussing the annotations in the code charts, such as
http://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0080.pdf
Information extracted from those charts is also available, perhaps in
more useful ways, e.g. in the UniBook Character Browser, the BabelPad
editor, and the Fileformat.info website (though they are not always
up-to-date and they are not normative sources of information).
The MIDDLE dot has cross references there to DOT OPERATOR and BULLET and
U+003A COLON points to RATIO
For instance, would be possible, in the the
NamesList, or some other field that look-up tools uses, to get a link
from e.g. COLON to DIVISION SIGN, and vice versa?
No, I don’t think that’s possible. But the code charts are what people
use, or should use, so they are suitable for the purpose, even though
they don’t use hyperlinks but just verbal references. (Hyperlinks are
possible in PDF format, too, of course, but setting them up can be a
major effort.)
My candidate characters, this round, are:
DIVISION SIGN (÷) as minus sign.
COLON (:) as division sign.
MIDDLE DOT (·) as multiplication symbol.
Well, MIDDLE DOT is relatively often used as multiplication symbol, so
it might be notified, but according to ISO 80000-2, the correct
dot-like multiplication symbol is DOT OPERATOR. There’s a possibility
of creating misunderstandings if MIDDLE DOT is explicitly mentioned as
a multiplication symbol. Such usage is indirectly referred to, or at
least alluded to, by the cross-reference (of type “see also”) to 22C5
DOT OPERATOR in the chart.
DOT OPERATOR and RATIO could use annotations identifying themselves as
the "non-fallback" versions of these symbols.
"Used in preference to U+xxxx as character denoting <operation yyyy>"
would be a possible template.
00F7 DIVISION SIGN could usefully be annotated as: "also used as an
alternate, more visually distinct MINUS SIGN in some contexts" with or
without cross reference to U+2212 MINUS SIGN (and U+2052 COMMERCIAL
MINUS SIGN could usefully get an reference to DIVISION SIGN)
A./
