Here is the reply that I sent to Peter Constable and to the other people to
whom he wrote.
Unlike for Mr Constable and for many other people, all of my posts have to be
passed by the moderator, and I know why that is the situation. Though that
situation was not imposed by a named official of Unicode Inc. acting in a
stated official capacity.
So my opportunities to defend my ideas are conditional.
William Overington
Monday 27 August 2018
----Original message----
>From : wjgo_10...@btinternet.com
Date : 2018/08/27 - 21:18 (GMTDT)
To : beckie...@gmail.com, verd...@wanadoo.fr, peter...@microsoft.com,
wjgo_10...@btinternet.com, m...@kli.org, kenwhist...@att.net,
richard.wording...@ntlworld.com, jameskass...@gmail.com
Subject : Re: Private Use areas
Well, it is a pity that you did not send your reply to the Unicode mailing list.
> That sounds like a non-conformant use of characters in the U+24xx block.
Well, you are an expert on these things and I do not understand as to with what
it would be non-conformant.
It seems to me that for many years some people have wanted a way to convey
information about the meaning of Private Use Area characters used in a document
in an unobtrusive way within the document. The format that I am suggesting
could be the basis of a way to do that.
I really do not understand the problem.
Ken Whistler wrote:
>>> > 1. Define a *protocol* for reliable interchange of custom character
>>> > property information about PUA code points.
Some people use XML for things where two characters are used in a different
manner.
A quick downbeat quip comment about my ideas with no explanation is not helpful
and might because of your standing cause some people not to consider the idea
even-handedly for concern of offending you.
I am reminded of a British film of the 1955 called The Colditz Story.
It used to be one of the regular films on the television years ago.
I do not know whether it was ever shown in America, maybe, or maybe it is just
a British thing.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Colditz+story
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colditz_Story
The reason why I am reminded of that film is that one of the British prisoners
devises a plan for a group of British prisoners to escape from Colditz
disguised as German officers and just walk out of the gate. This is ridiculed
as impossible because it has been tried before at various prisoner of war camps
and the people have always been detected as British prisoners. The man
suggesting the scheme then points out that the detection is because there is
clearly something questionable about the direction from which the disguised
prisoners arrive, such as from a prisoners' hut, that is the problem, not the
quality of the disguises or the basic soundness of the idea. The man then
suggests that they walk out of the German Officers' mess building. Please bear
in mind that walking out of the door of the mess building does not mean
actually being in the mess, it is a matter of going down the flight of stairs
from a storage area, (the stairs having been accessed from under the stage of
the castle theatre) walking past the entrance to the dining room and then out
of the door, supposedly on their way back, after dinner, to their billets in
the village. This done while a concert put on by some others of the prisoners,
and attended by the senior German officers, is going on in the castle theatre.
So, it is the bit about an idea coming from the wrong direction that reminds me
of the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eeSYvxVFUw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY8jMkIbwDM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxHsElyFsTI
William Overington
Monday 27 August 2018
----Original message----
>From : peter...@microsoft.com
Date : 2018/08/27 - 20:33 (GMTDT)
To : wjgo_10...@btinternet.com, jameskass...@gmail.com,
richard.wording...@ntlworld.com, m...@kli.org, beckie...@gmail.com,
verd...@wanadoo.fr
Subject : RE: Private Use areas
That sounds like a non-conformant use of characters in the U+24xx block.
Peter
From: Unicode <unicode-boun...@unicode.org> On Behalf Of
William_J_G Overington via Unicode
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2018 2:00 AM
To: jameskass...@gmail.com; richard.wording...@ntlworld.com; m...@kli.org;
beckie...@gmail.com; verd...@wanadoo.fr
Cc: unicode@unicode.org
Subject: Re: Private Use areas
Hi
How about the following method.
In a text file that contains text that uses Private Use Area characters, start
the file with a sequence of Enclosed Alphanumeric characters from regular
Unicode, that sequence containing the metadata relating to those Private Use
Area characters
as used in their present context.
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2460.pdf
Use circled digits U+24EA, U+2460 .. U+2469, and Circled Latin letters U+24B6
.. U+24E9.
Use U+2473 as if it were a circled space. The use of 20 to mean a space often
occurs in web addresses. I know that there it is hexadecimal and here it is
decimal but it has the same look of being an encoded space and so that is why I
am
suggesting using it.
Start the sequence with PUAINFO encoded using seven circled Latin letters and
any character other than a carriage return or a line feed shows that the
sequence has ended. The use of PUAINFO encoded using seven circled Latin
letters at the
start of the sequence is so that text using enclosed alphanumeric characters
for another purpose would not become disrupted.
Then a suitable software application can read the text file and then, either
automatically or after the clicking of a button, extract metadata information
from the sequence of enclosed alphanumeric characters and not display the
sequence
of enclosed alphanumeric characters.
Maybe other circled numbers in the range 10 through to 19 would have special
meanings.
This method would keep everything within plane zero.
William Overington
Monday 27 August 2018
----Original message----
>From : unicode@unicode.org
Date : 2018/08/21 - 23:23 (GMTDT)
To : d...@ewellic.org
Cc : unicode@unicode.org
Subject : Re: Private Use areas
On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 3:02 PM Doug Ewell via Unicode <unicode@unicode.org>
wrote:
Ken Whistler wrote:
> The way forward for folks who want to do this kind thing is:
>
> 1. Define a *protocol* for reliable interchange of custom character
> property information about PUA code points.
I've often thought that would be a great idea. You can't get to steps 2
and 3 without step 1. I'd gladly participate in such a project.
As would I.
