3 ms·

Lets not forget the misspelling of guillemet as guillemot that is now firmly embedded into PostScript and Adobe software with no chance of ever being fixed. Un

by dhosek 5y ago

Lets not forget the misspelling of guillemet as guillemot that is now firmly embedded into PostScript and Adobe software with no chance of ever being fixed. Unicode sidestepped the issue by naming the characters RIGHT/LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK.

Someone 5y ago
Unicode also documents its mistakes in technote 27 “Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names” (https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/ https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/), with remarks such as “U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER The name does not describe the function of this character. Despite its name, it does not join graphemes” “The use of the spelling lamda derives from ISO 10646. This does not mean that it is more correct than lambda, merely that the spelling without the 'b' is the one used in the formal character names” “A spelling error: "brakcet" should be "bracket". A formal alias correcting this error has been defined”
- asddubs 5y ago
  Why can't unicode change the names of the glyphs?
  - Someone 5y ago
    From that page: “Because Unicode Standard is a character encoding standard and not the Universal Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Character Identity, the stability and uniqueness of published character names is far more important than the correctness of the name. The published character names are normative for the purposes of the Unicode standard and the large number of other IT standards that reference it. These standards require stable identifiers and character names must therefore be immutable — any change of character names is almost as disruptive of the standards as changing code points for characters would be. Accordingly, the Unicode Consortium has adopted the Name Stability Policy, preventing changes in character names. As a result, errors in character names cannot be corrected. Instead, important character name anomalies anomalies (SIC) are documented with annotations in the Unicode Character Code Charts.” Also because somebody, somewhere, might have used those names to look up Unicode code points. Part of each Unicode release is a file named “UnicodeData.txt” (https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), so those strings are public information.
  - jfk13 5y ago
    Just a note in passing: Unicode doesn't name glyphs; it names characters.
- mananaysiempre 5y ago
  I’ve heard Greeks insist that lamda is indeed correct (as a non-misleading approximation of something like [lamða], not necessarily as an English spelling), so that part might have been a deliberate result of the ISO process. (There’s also the name caron for the haček, apparently not used by anyone before the 80s; per the official FAQ: Q: Why is the haček accent called “caron” in Unicode? A: Nobody knows.)
  - Someone 5y ago
    Not for lack of trying: https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2009/08/antedating-caron.html https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2009/08/antedating-caron.h...

by dhosek 5y ago

Someone 5y ago

Unicode also documents its mistakes in technote 27 “Known Anomalies in Unicode Character Names” (https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/ https://unicode.org/notes/tn27/), with remarks such as “U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER The name does not describe the function of this character. Despite its name, it does not join graphemes” “The use of the spelling lamda derives from ISO 10646. This does not mean that it is more correct than lambda, merely that the spelling without the 'b' is the one used in the formal character names” “A spelling error: "brakcet" should be "bracket". A formal alias correcting this error has been defined”

asddubs 5y ago
Why can't unicode change the names of the glyphs?
- Someone 5y ago
  From that page: “Because Unicode Standard is a character encoding standard and not the Universal Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Character Identity, the stability and uniqueness of published character names is far more important than the correctness of the name. The published character names are normative for the purposes of the Unicode standard and the large number of other IT standards that reference it. These standards require stable identifiers and character names must therefore be immutable — any change of character names is almost as disruptive of the standards as changing code points for characters would be. Accordingly, the Unicode Consortium has adopted the Name Stability Policy, preventing changes in character names. As a result, errors in character names cannot be corrected. Instead, important character name anomalies anomalies (SIC) are documented with annotations in the Unicode Character Code Charts.” Also because somebody, somewhere, might have used those names to look up Unicode code points. Part of each Unicode release is a file named “UnicodeData.txt” (https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt https://unicode.org/Public/13.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt), so those strings are public information.
- jfk13 5y ago
  Just a note in passing: Unicode doesn't name glyphs; it names characters.
mananaysiempre 5y ago
I’ve heard Greeks insist that lamda is indeed correct (as a non-misleading approximation of something like [lamða], not necessarily as an English spelling), so that part might have been a deliberate result of the ISO process. (There’s also the name caron for the haček, apparently not used by anyone before the 80s; per the official FAQ: Q: Why is the haček accent called “caron” in Unicode? A: Nobody knows.)
- Someone 5y ago
  Not for lack of trying: https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2009/08/antedating-caron.html https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2009/08/antedating-caron.h...