Pi fonts and PUA

This is a last call comment from Chris Lilley (chris@w3.org) on
the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-charmod-20020430/).

Semi-structured version of the comment:

Submitted by: Chris Lilley (chris@w3.org)
Submitted on behalf of (maybe empty): TAG (www-tag@w3.org)
Comment type: editorial
Chapter/section the comment applies to: 4.5 Private use code points
The comment will be visible to: public
Comment title: Pi fonts and PUA
Comment:
TAG agreed to this comment at its 22 March 2004 TAG teleconference
http://www.w3.org/2004/03/22-tag-summary.html

The TAG believes that its comment C125 regarding the Private Use Area
(PUA) on the previous last call has been substantially addressed.

We note one additional issue in the new text. It discourages an
existing use (encoding of pi or symbol fonts); on the one hand this is
good because inline graphics should be used for graphics, and it says
so


C068 [S] Specifications SHOULD allow the inclusion of or reference to
pictures and graphics where appropriate, to eliminate the need to
(mis)use character-oriented mechanisms for pictures or graphics.
C069 [C] Content SHOULD NOT misuse character technology for pictures
or graphics.

On the other hand, we worry that this might inadvertently encourage
people to encode pi or symbol fonts on the ascii range, which is worse
than using the PUA! For unencoded characters, or symbols, the PUA is
appropriate. To guard against this possibility we suggest adding the
following text - perhaps a new conformance requirement after C069 or
an extension of C069:

C0xx [I][C] Fonts for characters not yet in Unicode, or for graphical
symbols, SHOULD use the PUA rather than overloading existing
characters with unrelated glyphs.


Structured version of  the comment:

<lc-comment
  visibility="public" status="pending"
  decision="pending" impact="editorial" id="LC-">
  <originator email="chris@w3.org"
      >Chris Lilley</originator>
  <represents email="www-tag@w3.org"
      >TAG</represents>
  <charmod-section href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-charmod-20040225/#sec-PrivateUse'
    >4.5</charmod-section>
  <title>Pi fonts and PUA</title>
  <description>
    <comment>
      <dated-link date="2004-03-29"
         href="http://www.w3.org/mid/157752247.20040329190958@toro.w3.mag.keio.ac.jp"
        >Pi fonts and PUA</dated-link>
      <para>TAG agreed to this comment at its 22 March 2004 TAG teleconference
http://www.w3.org/2004/03/22-tag-summary.html

The TAG believes that its comment C125 regarding the Private Use Area
(PUA) on the previous last call has been substantially addressed.

We note one additional issue in the new text. It discourages an
existing use (encoding of pi or symbol fonts); on the one hand this is
good because inline graphics should be used for graphics, and it says
so


C068 [S] Specifications SHOULD allow the inclusion of or reference to
pictures and graphics where appropriate, to eliminate the need to
(mis)use character-oriented mechanisms for pictures or graphics.
C069 [C] Content SHOULD NOT misuse character technology for pictures
or graphics.

On the other hand, we worry that this might inadvertently encourage
people to encode pi or symbol fonts on the ascii range, which is worse
than using the PUA! For unencoded characters, or symbols, the PUA is
appropriate. To guard against this possibility we suggest adding the
following text - perhaps a new conformance requirement after C069 or
an extension of C069:

C0xx [I][C] Fonts for characters not yet in Unicode, or for graphical
symbols, SHOULD use the PUA rather than overloading existing
characters with unrelated glyphs.</para>
    </comment>
  </description>
</lc-comment>

Received on Monday, 29 March 2004 14:10:26 UTC