Why does one require implementation laws to define a code point in Unicode for a new currency symbol? And what does it have to do with ISCII or keyboard layouts or usage or non-usage by people within India or abroad?
One cannot make too many assumptions regarding usage. For example, Microsoft enforces the use if the Israeli currency symbol ₪ - by means of introducing it as a spelling correction for the common abbreviation ש"ח. In normal text many, including myself, do not want this but fortunately the solution was straightforward. Jony > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of verdy_p > Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 1:23 PM > To: Michael Everson; shi zhao > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Indian new rupee sign > > > De : "Michael Everson" > > I like the video clip there. "Encoding in Indian standards will take > about six months. Encoding in the Unicode and > IEC standards will take about 18 months to two years." > > > > Sounds as though our Government of India colleagues gave them good > advice. > > > > Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/ > > Yes, and during that time, we'll get correct input from India, when it > will have defined its implementation laws, > and defined its national standard. > > The only emergency will come when using the symbol will be mandatory > for residents in India (but this won't happen > before India clearly defines its standard, and probably not before a > transition period), or for software makers > selling products in India. > > India will first need to realize that adapting the ISCII standard will > be tricky (there is no more any common byte > value available in its various 8-bit subtables, even if all of them > have empty positions, so the basic one-to-one > transliteration schemes assuming the same position for "equivalent" > letters, digits or punctuation will not work, > unless India abandons the positions reserved for C1 controls in the 8- > bit version, abandonning also the 7-bit > version of ISCII, to free the positions 0xA0 and 0xFF). > > Only one position in ISCII allows interoperable extension across the > various ISCII tables (the "EXT" code which was > reserved for Vedic extensions, but Unicode and ISO/10646 encoded them > directly in each script by overloading the > unused positions of the basic ISCII 1991 layout). But seriously, ISCII > is dying... it never reached an international > standard like ISO 8859 (it could have been, as its layout was > compatible with it), and most softwares are ignoring > it (possibly not in India though, and its market size is large enough > that ISCII could survive or could be revived > for longer time than we think). > > And there will be a need for a keyboard layout assignment (possibly > replacing the old assignment for the "Rs" key if > it exists, suggesting AltGr+R for the symbol, and modifying keyboard > drivers so that they will return the new code > point (if they are based on Unicode, otherwise return the ISCII bytes > sequence). > > This does not mean that we must not prepare the field, even if for now > fonts can just encode the symbol in a PUA, or > if various systems won't accept the proposed standard code point > assignment. There's no need to allocate the symbol > in the Devanagari block, because it will be shared by all the Indian > scripts and many others, this will be a generic > currency symbol for all scripts. > > But the proposed U+20B9 location will be perfect, independantly of the > allowed glyph variations for the > representative glyph (India can vote at UTC and WG2 for the > rpresentative glyph, its voice will be heard), it will > have no impact on variations occuring on fonts used outside India > > In fact it does not matter if it is not formally approved for the > coming Unicode 6.0 (if it's too late for the WG2 > Agenda ?) as long as there's a commitment to not encode enything else > at this location (now or in the future), until > India terminates its own legislation and formally requests this > character > > India won't need to do that if the symbol will ONLY be used on official > Indian banknotes or on LEGALLY APPROVED > check forms emitted by Indian banks, or on government emissions like > postal and fiscal stamps, or fiscal billings, > and if there's no plan to force customers and sellers to display the > symbol for pricing and advertizing. > > And internationally, India cannot force the use of the symbol, even if > it's encoded, because other countries are > already using the "INR" code in their interchange. > > India can still choose to retain its exclusive copyright on the symbol > and protect it so that it will have a > mandatory glyph form and metrics according to governmental decisions > (authorization required for using it, so fonts > including it would be illegal as they would be illegally derived works > based on copyrighted work, and there will be > NO place for it in the UCS where it should then be rejected). > >
