On 03/30/2001 10:10:22 PM unicode-bounce wrote:
>From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> The historic notion
>> of Unicode as a uniformly 16-bit encoding has been in principle obsolete
>> for a while, but now it is also obsolete in practical terms.
>
>Actually, I think *that* statement is a bit premature, still. It is not
>obsolete in pratical terms until there is widespread support in the way of
>fonts, keyboards, IMEs, and the other important items that help bring
>characters to the user.
Let me clarify what I meant: There are still some out there who think that
Unicode is basically a 16-bit uniform width encoding. Technically, that was
no longer true as of ver 2.0, though some of the text in TUS 3.0 is
anachronistic in this regard. Yet while it was technically the case that
Unicode's codespace of 0x0 - 0x10FFFF requires 21 bits, up to now people
could get away with the uniform 16-bit description of Unicode since that
was adequate for all existing characters. Now, that is no longer true.
- Peter
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Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
