Re: Unicode 3.0

Rob writes:
>>>>>>
Since I've been looking for fonts I ancountered the word Unicode. What is
it? How can I get all those neat scripts like Thaana and (especially)
Mongolian vertical script?

----------
> Van: Danny Wier <dawier@...>
> Hey, somebody mentioned the coming new version of Unicode and Deseret
> phonetic script, and I'm checking out the latest data.  These scripts are
<<<<<<

To answer this question in "laymans terms":

Computers store documents as a sequence of numbers, with different numeric
values representing the symbols for different letters, numbers and so forth.
Traditional numbering schemes (ASCII, ANSI, EBCDIC are examples) can store only
about 250 characters, so you need different (and conflicting) mappings from
number to character for each character set.  Worse still, the most poular scheme
(ASCII) is only really firmly defined for about 130 of those 250.

Unicode is different to this, as it allows over 65,500 possible characters,
letting you have (pretty much) a unique number for any symbol in any script, and
the value-to-symbol mapping is guaranteed to be compatible with any other
Unicode-using software.

Where (for example) an ordinary font contains definitions for the whole ANSI
set, a "Unicode" font will generally have definitions in it for one or more
subsets of the Unicode set.

I think that's just about it....?


HTH

Paul

PS:- Tengwar and tlhIngan Hol are also proposed for inclusion in the Unicode
set, along with Blissymbols.







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