Re: [CSS21][css3-namespace][css3-page][css3-selectors][css3-content] Unicode Normalization

Henri Sivonen wrote:

> My point is that it's generally not helpful to bring out the Western 
> bias[1] thing in discussions of using Unicode in computer languages. 
> Previously, too, performance has been preferred over full natural 
> language complexity for computer language identifier equality comparison 
> and in that instance clearly it could not have been an issue of Western 
> bias. The thing is that comparing computer language identifiers code 
> point for code point is the common-sense thing to do. 

With respect, it is the /simplest/ thing to do.  For those
who work in anything more complex than English, it is
probably anything /but/ "common sense".

> If you consider 
> the lack of case-insensitivity, some languages are not perfectly 
> convenienced. If you consider the lack normalization, another 
> (overlapping) set of languages is not perfectly convenienced. If you 
> consider the sensitivity to diacritics, yet another set of languages is 
> not perfectly convenienced. No language is prohibited by code point for 
> code point comparison, though.

Yet for many (perhaps most) of the world's languages,
comparison by code-point is noticeably sub-optimal.

Philip TAYLOR

Received on Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:32:26 UTC