Re: definition Re: RE Checkpoint 3.4 again

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> Is Chinese considered "alphanumeric" BTW?

generally speaking, the term for a symbolic figure or character is a
"glyph", although there is also a specialized usage of the term which
refers to symbols which convey information nonverbally -- which, to an
extent, is what that which western europeans and their cultural
descendents generally consider "text" _does_ through centuries of usage,
custom, and "refinement"...

as for distinctions, alphanumeric is generally understood in computing (in
the broad sense of the word!) circles as consisting of both letters and
numbers (often including other symbols, such as mathematical/chemical
symbols, punctuation marks, etc.)

an ideogram (at least academically speaking) is a picture or symbol used
in a system of writing (called "ideography") to represent a thing or an
idea, but not the precise word or phrase for the thing which is
represented (hence one of the needs for ruby for ideographic ); strictly
speaking, an ideogram does not "literally" represent the object or
concept(s) which comprise the ideogram -- rather, they suggest a concept
or idea, and it is that concept or idea that the ideogram represents; 

and then there's the antithesis of the ideogram, the "logogram", which is
a letter, symbol or sign which is used to represent an entire word (such
as the copyright and trademark symbol -- or the ampersand (&)

oh, and as for the components of alphanumeric, an "alphabet" is simply
a collection of letters, with a letter being defined as a symbol
representing a speech sound, while a numeral is the basic unit of a
symbolic system of enumerators...

ain'tcha glad you asked?
gregory.

-------------------------------------------------------------
ERUDITION, n.  Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.
                     Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory J. Rosmaita, oedipus@hicom.net
     Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/index.html
-------------------------------------------------------------

Received on Friday, 3 August 2001 13:16:05 UTC