Re: Comments on 31 March spec

I prefer 10646 partly for the reasons the IAB chose it over
Unicode:  it has room for expansion without resorting to
Unicode's "surrogate extension mechanism" and it is the
product of a more legitimate organization (no brickbats,
please; Paul asked, I'm answering).

The surrogate extension mechanism, in which two 16-bit
codes are paired to represent characters (or whatnot)
will be required as soon as the 10646 people specify
whatnots beyond the BMP.  According to what I read on
the Unicode list (though I may have fallen off it), this
is going to happen soonish, when some tens of thousands
of Chinese characters are specified.  This pairing
mechanism is really ISO-2022 in disguise, to my mind;
might as well go with 10646 instead.

Note:  Unicode publications can still be useful as
references to those areas in which 10646 and Unicode
are compatible.

Regards, Terry

From w3c-sgml-wg-request@w3.org Wed Apr  9 08:20:13 1997
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From: Paul Prescod <papresco@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>
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Terry Allen wrote:
> 
> >  - to specify just some version of ISO 10646 and ignore Unicode
>     (in which case, which version?)
> 
> Yes, 10646 and ignore Unicode.  The latest version of 10646.  When
> 10646 is revised, XML can if it likes pick up the revision in XML's
> next revision.

I know nothing about these issues and would like to know on what basis
you chose one over the other?

 Paul Prescod

Received on Wednesday, 9 April 1997 11:36:24 UTC