- From: Carrasco Benitez Manuel <manuel.carrasco@emea.eudra.org>
- Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:41:48 +0100
- To: "'www-international@w3.org'" <www-international@w3.org>, "'www-html@w3.org'" <www-html@w3.org>, "'unicode@unicode.org'" <unicode@unicode.org>, "'Patrice.HUSSON@bxl.dg13.cec.be'" <Patrice.HUSSON@bxl.dg13.cec.be>
HTML version at http://www.crpht.lu/~carrasco/winter/euro.html IT ASPECTS OF THE EURO CURRENCY SIGN M.T. Carrasco Benitez The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products INTRODUCTION The euro is the European Union currency that should be introduced from the 1 January 1999. For details look at http://europa.eu.int/euro/ This document discusses some of the aspects related to the euro currency sign and IT (information technology). UNICODE The euro currency sign is in Unicode Version 2.0: Unicode number Glyph Name 20A0 CE EURO-CURRENCY SIGN The glyph "CE" (both characters are interlaced with the E lower) is *not* the euro glyph. The euro glyph is like a "E" with two bars in the middle. The official design is at the URL above. Apparently there is an initiative for creating a new position in Unicode at 20AC for the official glyph. ASCII AND LATIN1 A position should be found for the euro currency sign in ASCII and Latin1 (ISO 8859-1), as there will be many systems using these encoding after the euro is introduced. The position chosen should have some desirable characteristics: - Little or not used. - Minimal harms</em> if the euro or the original glyph appears. - In the lower table (positions 0 to 127), as it is valid for both encoding. - Present in the qwerty keyboard. The following position is proposed: Unicode number Glyph Name 007C | VERTICAL LINE If the position for the euro was in the upper table (positions 128 to 255), another position would be needed in the lower table or it would not be available in ASCII. HTML ENTITY An entity should be included in HTML for the euro. It is proposed: € It is recommended that this entity be used in preference to the (ASCII) code corresponding to the position that it is eventually chosen. This allows making the intention clear that one wants the euro. PUBLICITY There must be publicity focused on the IT vendors on the approved euro glyph, the position in ASCII, etc. Otherwise the computer equipment needed would not be available with the correct glyph: if a programmer in San Jose were requested to introduce the euro currency sign, he would probably consult the Unicode book and copy the (wrong) "CE" glyph. INTRODUCTION OF THE EURO GLYPH The euro currency sign should be introduced to the computer equipments as soon as the situation is clarified regarding Unicode and ASCII. FEEDBACK Please send comments to manuel.carrasco@emea.eudra.org DISCLAIMER This document represent only the views of the author.
Received on Wednesday, 15 October 1997 06:42:29 UTC