5 ms·

I never understood why Unicode has bold versions of characters, that's the function of the font, not the character set.

mkl 6y ago
Most of them are because they have different meanings in maths, so this makes it easier to represent maths using Unicodemath [1] or MathML. [1] https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.1.pdf https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.1...., https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/murrays/unicodemath https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/murrays/unico... Edit: [2] Similar for Latex https://www.ctan.org/pkg/unicode-math?lang=en https://www.ctan.org/pkg/unicode-math?lang=en
- dbmueller 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure the first two links refer to something very different than the third: The first two are about a way to encode maths using unicode, as in conventions and special characters allowing e.g. to write fractions, aligned equations, etc. So, this would essentially furnish an alternative to the "math" subset of latex (think mathjax or katex) or mathml. The third is a package for latex, and allows to use unicode symbols (greek letters, math symbols, etc.) in your math environments + something related to the use of unicode in the output (requiring compatible fonts); it seems the second part is the main one but I'm not sure what that means exactly.
  - mkl 6y ago
    The Latex package says "Maths input can also be simplified with Unicode since literal glyphs may be entered instead of control sequences in your document source." So it at least includes a similar idea.
    - dbmueller 6y ago
      Superficially similar, yes, but my point was just that it may seem from your bunching up the links together that all refer to the same thing, while they don't.
      - mkl 6y ago
        Fair enough, I've edited it. I just tried using the Latex package with a formula typed using Unicode symbols, and it does work, but doesn't follow all the UnicodeMath rules.
lloydde 6y ago
I have always assumed this related to achieving a differentiated character set for Math and science formulas.
bmn__ 6y ago
> why Unicode has Because the distinction did already exist in the originating repertoire. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23029871 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23029871
diegoperini 6y ago
Symbolically same but semantically different characters are most of the time represented differently in the byte level so that searching in large text can still be implemented as simple byte comparison, if Unicode can be called simple.
- lonelappde 6y ago
  "simply byte comparison" is not a term associated with Unicode. Unicode is usually in strings, and reverse engineering a string is -- very hard, and surprisingly I haven't found a paper proving whether it is NP complete.
- ken 6y ago
  That's the opposite of the rule for CJK characters, right? For those, symbolically-same characters get the same codepoint regardless of semantics (language) or shape (glyph).

mkl 6y ago

Most of them are because they have different meanings in maths, so this makes it easier to represent maths using Unicodemath [1] or MathML. [1] https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.1.pdf https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.1...., https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/murrays/unicodemath https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/murrays/unico... Edit: [2] Similar for Latex https://www.ctan.org/pkg/unicode-math?lang=en https://www.ctan.org/pkg/unicode-math?lang=en

dbmueller 6y ago
I'm pretty sure the first two links refer to something very different than the third: The first two are about a way to encode maths using unicode, as in conventions and special characters allowing e.g. to write fractions, aligned equations, etc. So, this would essentially furnish an alternative to the "math" subset of latex (think mathjax or katex) or mathml. The third is a package for latex, and allows to use unicode symbols (greek letters, math symbols, etc.) in your math environments + something related to the use of unicode in the output (requiring compatible fonts); it seems the second part is the main one but I'm not sure what that means exactly.
- mkl 6y ago
  The Latex package says "Maths input can also be simplified with Unicode since literal glyphs may be entered instead of control sequences in your document source." So it at least includes a similar idea.
  - dbmueller 6y ago
    Superficially similar, yes, but my point was just that it may seem from your bunching up the links together that all refer to the same thing, while they don't.
    - mkl 6y ago
      Fair enough, I've edited it. I just tried using the Latex package with a formula typed using Unicode symbols, and it does work, but doesn't follow all the UnicodeMath rules.

lloydde 6y ago

I have always assumed this related to achieving a differentiated character set for Math and science formulas.

bmn__ 6y ago

> why Unicode has Because the distinction did already exist in the originating repertoire. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23029871 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23029871

diegoperini 6y ago

Symbolically same but semantically different characters are most of the time represented differently in the byte level so that searching in large text can still be implemented as simple byte comparison, if Unicode can be called simple.

lonelappde 6y ago
"simply byte comparison" is not a term associated with Unicode. Unicode is usually in strings, and reverse engineering a string is -- very hard, and surprisingly I haven't found a paper proving whether it is NP complete.
ken 6y ago
That's the opposite of the rule for CJK characters, right? For those, symbolically-same characters get the same codepoint regardless of semantics (language) or shape (glyph).