Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 13:42:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Barbara Beeton <bnb@ams.org>
To: CyrTeX-en@vsu.ru
Subject: Re: Russian/Polish/German...without switching
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0206231324460.16236-100000@sun06.ams.org>
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i'd like to comment on just one thing that larry has said
regarding coding:

    Somewhere in unicode there are regions reserved for private
    use; why not TUG use?  Standards are a good thing; lets have
    enough of them! Russian might encode on "0700--"07FF and
    French on "2100--"21FF (placement motivated by well known
    international telephone prefixes).  ...

the unicode "private use area" is in the "Exxx-"Fxxx range
(but not all of it; however, i'm not going to take the time
to look it up).

cyrillic is in "04xx; "07xx is syriac.

"21xx is arrows.

i've just spent several years working with the unicode technical
committee getting a reasonably full complement of math symbols
(including lots more arrows) into unicode.  (you can see the
results in the unicode 3.2 charts on the unicode site, at
http://www.unicode.org ; the press release announcing version 3.2
is at http://www.unicode.org/press/press_release-3.2.html .)
please don't muddy the waters by even thinking about using code
ranges that already have something useful defined in unicode.

the unicode values are being used in the development of fonts to
bring math to the web.  (see the site http://www.stixfonts.org ,
and for some of the history of the unicode work,
http://www.ams.org/STIX/ .)

we all know why don knuth built tex the way he did; when he was
developing tex, unicode didn't exist, and the existing coding
standards were inadequate for what he needed, never mind the
limitations on computer memory.  things have changed.  this
isn't a matter of my personal preferences, but recognition of
the fact that if you use a recognized code, you greatly increase
the chances that you'll be able to communicate with other people
on subjects of common interest.  standards *are* a good thing.
before devising another one, please take a look at what's there
already.
							-- bb