On 10/13/2011 10:23 AM, Shriramana Sharma wrote:
On 10/13/2011 09:47 PM, Philippe Verdy wrote:
I'd like to have an opinion about why this chart (for example)
describes two code points 09E4 and 09E5 as<reserved>, without
assigning any glyph, but still associating them with other punctuation
signs in another script. Are these positions permanently reserved for
the case where specific danda signs would be later discovered and
encoded specifically in this script ? OR are they really unassigned
and usable for encoding later any other kind of character ?
They are for potential script-specific danda signs and closed to other
kinds of characters.
The annotation "<reserved>" is used for any character location that is
unassigned. Most such locations are suppressed in the character names
list pages for the code charts.
However, if a location carries some other annotation it will be listed and
<reserved> will a appear in place of the character name.
Usually, the reason for having an annotation on an empty code point
is because of "parallel encoding structure" somewhere else. Usually, it
is because of the existence of such parallel encoding structure, that there
even are empty cells in a block that are not at the end (although
occasionally
they exist for other reasons).
However, <reserved> simply means "unassigned" not "set aside permanently
for a special purpose".
Given the right circumstance, the encoding committees are free to decide
to reclaim
such "holes" at any time, although they may be more reluctant to do that
with
certain types of holes compared to others. These particular open code
points are
probably of the kind that the committees are more reluctant to reclaim for
"random" characters.
A./
