> In short, in any given locale, one should get the
symbols of that locale, out of the box. (And in my locale, that should include
math and
> music symbols).
I question
this.
On the one hand, I
agree with you. As a musician, it's always bugged me that I can't say
"Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major" without either spelling out "-Flat"
or using a lowercase b as a kludge (at least I can use the pound sign to say
"Gershwin's Prelude No. 2 in C# Minor").
On the other hand,
I'm probably not going to be using U+1D1A6 MUSICAL SYMBOL HAUPTSTIMME or U+1D197
MUSICAL SYMBOL TURN unless I'm a musician writing about music for an audience of
musicians. Symbols like the cut-time mark or the trable clef or the notes
themselves are somewhere in the middle.
Same thing with
mathematical symbols. I'd be pretty upset if the plus sign wasn't
generally available, but I'm probably not going to be using U+27E0 LOZENGE
DIVIDED BY HORIZONTAL RULE unless I'm writing for a really specialized
audience. Things like the not-equal sign or the set operators are
somewhere in the middle. The math alphanumerics may likewise be somewhere
in the middle.
So the question is
where you draw the line. It's clear
that with almost any set of signs and symbols there's a subset that's in general
common use and that most people know about and may want to use in their
writing. These should be implemented in most operating systems and, for
the most part, they are. But there's a much larger set that's really only
used within fairly tight communities; it's fair for these communities to pay a
little extra to get specialized software and/or fonts that fill their
needs. Especially since math and music (at least) generally require
special layout beyond what normal word processors can do.
--Rich
Gillam
Language
Analysis Systems, Inc.
