Re: definition Re: RE Checkpoint 3.4 again

Thank you for the splendid explanation, Gregory.

But an alphabet is also:
A system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things.

And a Chinese alphabet exists. And naturally a Chinese text in the Web will
be alphanumeric, it will use characters and numbers of the Chinese alphabet.
I think so!

kind regards,
Emmanuelle

----- Original Message -----
From: "gregory j. rosmaita" <oedipus@hicom.net>
To: "Kynn Bartlett" <kynn@reef.com>
Cc: "Charles McCathieNevile" <charles@w3.org>; "Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y
Restrepo" <emmanuelle@teleline.es>; "Ian B. Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>; "Wendy A
Chisholm" <wendy@w3.org>; "WAI Cross-group list" <wai-xtech@w3.org>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 7:15 PM
Subject: 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 13:44:57 UTC