Re: Comments on CSS3 Fonts module

Henri Sivonen wrote to <www-style@w3.org> on 15 September 2002 in "Re:
Comments on CSS3 Fonts module"
(<mid:00BB178A-C8A2-11D6-9247-003065B8CF0E@niksula.hut.fi>):

> I'd like to see something like this in the spec:
> User agents MUST NOT use U+003F QUESTION MARK as a fallback
> representation when a glyph for a given character is missing. If a user
> agent is running on a platform that has a convention specifically
> designed for representing Unicode characters for which glyphs are
> unavailable, the user agent SHOULD follow the platform convention.
> Otherwise, user agents SHOULD use U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER as the
> fallback representation.

I cannot agree with a recommendation to alter the text merely because a
character has no appropriate glyphs in a system's currently available
fonts.  However the system chooses to present (or not to present) the
character, I'd like the character's identity (that is, its UCS
codepoint) to remain intact.

To retain the character's identity is very much in the spirit of the
Unicode Standard.  While CSS constitutes what the Unicode Standard calls
a "higher-level protocol" and may thus mandate other treatments, I do
not see how replacing glyphless characters is actually useful.

-- 
Etan Wexler <mailto:ewexler@stickdog.com>
Every time you touch me I feel like I'm being bored.

Received on Thursday, 26 September 2002 20:48:04 UTC