22 ms·

What's new in Unicode 7.0?

74 points by conductor 13y ago

acqq 13y ago
I see one character that will be hugely successful now that it's standardized: 1f595
- Aldo_MX 13y ago
  🖕 DISCLAIMER: This is not a personal attack but a demonstration of the character.
  - gcb0 13y ago
    Nice square.
- colanderman 13y ago
  The best part is that since it's not in any fonts yet, if you use it in a document it's essentially a time bomb (or a time-f-bomb if you will).
etfb 13y ago
Still no Klingon? Quvatlh!
- Eduard 13y ago
  At least they introduced the Vulcan salute at U+1F596!
- 3JPLW 13y ago
  Here's an interesting response[1] from Michael Everson back in 1997. Also interesting is that there's already a reserved area in the CSUR (ConScript Unicode Registry) for it[2], and you may even have a font that shows it[3]! I was surprised I had one: ! [1]. http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML009/0146.html http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML... [2]. http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html [3]. http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Test_Klingon.html http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Test_Klingon.html
- pjscott 13y ago
  Also sadly missing the Tengwar of Fëanor, though they're in the Unicode roadmap. http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ There are not enough elves in the Unicode committee.
pilsetnieks 13y ago
Isn't Linear A a little bit of an overkill? I mean, if we at least knew what it meant, maybe then, but now?
- breadbox 13y ago
  Presumably it's useful to people who are writing papers in the process of deciphering it. Assuming anyone other than crackpots are still trying.
- igravious 13y ago
  And "MAN IN BUSINESS SUIT LEVITATING" is not overkill? Seems to devalue the entire standard and project. edit: Unicode should be universally useful. This is not. I would love to be convinced otherwise however .....
  - duskwuff 13y ago
    Even if this specific character isn't of any particular use, the fact that you can now represent every character in Webdings in Unicode is kind of nice, I guess.
    - igravious 13y ago
      What's so special about Webdings? I would have thought that Unicode be used for representing the common natural language alphabetic, ideographic and symbolic glyphs that had widespread communal and historical use. Not for encoding some proprietary font by some corporation, that's not how I see it. I'd ask not to be voted down if you disagree, just explain to me why you think otherwise.
      - mnsc 13y ago
        "...symbolic glyphs that had widespread communal and historical use" The answer lies within your question.
        13y ago
jayfuerstenberg 13y ago
Surprising that it took this long to introduce the middle finger as a standard character. Emails will never be the same again.
- frozenport 13y ago
  ....................../´¯/) ....................,/¯../ .................../..../ ............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸ ........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\ ........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...') .........\.................'...../ ..........''...\.......... _.·´ ............\..............( ..............\.............\...
xrt 13y ago
They lost me when they went to 21 bits.
- xrt 13y ago
  So a middle finger gets fewer downvotes than a technical commentary. awesome.
  - derleth 13y ago
    That wasn't a technical commentary.
- nikbackm 13y ago
  You mean they should have stayed at 16 bits? What would happen to all the characters that don't fit in that case, better luck in other standards?
brownbat 13y ago
The current dispute between Marshallese and Latvian is a phenomenal example of the sort of puzzles here. Apparently the Marshallese require some characters to display with cedillas, and Latvian has characters traditionally named "(some letter) WITH CEDILLA" even though they are displayed with commas... so if you just say "LETTER WITH CEDILLA" it's now not clear whether you mean cedilla or comma, and correcting it would break Latvian. http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13128-latvian-marshal-adhoc.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13128-latvian-marshal-adhoc.... Not sure how they do this work without going slowly insane.
- userulluipeste 13y ago
  The same scenario - S and T with cedillas, used in Turkish and (used to be) used in Romanian. Only that Romanian letters should be with comma, not cedillas (on small scale the difference is not distinguishable). So it's Romanian vs Turkish? No, it isn't! S and T with commas were added for Romanian later (somewhere waaay separate from other Romanian diacritics) in the Unicode set and everybody is happy! ...and sane.
  - brownbat 13y ago
    Latvian and Marshallese is slightly more confusing, because Latvian commas are already called cedillas in the unicode names, despite not actually being cedillas. Sure, they'll just extend by adding something like "MARSHALLESE CEDILLA" to refer to actual cedillas. But it still must be frustrating to discover areas where traditional orthographic names are ambiguous or even misleading.

74 points by conductor 13y ago

acqq 13y ago

I see one character that will be hugely successful now that it's standardized: 1f595

Aldo_MX 13y ago
🖕 DISCLAIMER: This is not a personal attack but a demonstration of the character.
- gcb0 13y ago
  Nice square.
colanderman 13y ago
The best part is that since it's not in any fonts yet, if you use it in a document it's essentially a time bomb (or a time-f-bomb if you will).

etfb 13y ago

Still no Klingon? Quvatlh!

Eduard 13y ago
At least they introduced the Vulcan salute at U+1F596!
3JPLW 13y ago
Here's an interesting response[1] from Michael Everson back in 1997. Also interesting is that there's already a reserved area in the CSUR (ConScript Unicode Registry) for it[2], and you may even have a font that shows it[3]! I was surprised I had one: ! [1]. http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML009/0146.html http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML... [2]. http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html [3]. http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Test_Klingon.html http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Test_Klingon.html
pjscott 13y ago
Also sadly missing the Tengwar of Fëanor, though they're in the Unicode roadmap. http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ There are not enough elves in the Unicode committee.

pilsetnieks 13y ago

Isn't Linear A a little bit of an overkill? I mean, if we at least knew what it meant, maybe then, but now?

breadbox 13y ago
Presumably it's useful to people who are writing papers in the process of deciphering it. Assuming anyone other than crackpots are still trying.
igravious 13y ago
And "MAN IN BUSINESS SUIT LEVITATING" is not overkill? Seems to devalue the entire standard and project. edit: Unicode should be universally useful. This is not. I would love to be convinced otherwise however .....
- duskwuff 13y ago
  Even if this specific character isn't of any particular use, the fact that you can now represent every character in Webdings in Unicode is kind of nice, I guess.
  - igravious 13y ago
    What's so special about Webdings? I would have thought that Unicode be used for representing the common natural language alphabetic, ideographic and symbolic glyphs that had widespread communal and historical use. Not for encoding some proprietary font by some corporation, that's not how I see it. I'd ask not to be voted down if you disagree, just explain to me why you think otherwise.
    - mnsc 13y ago
      "...symbolic glyphs that had widespread communal and historical use" The answer lies within your question.
      - 13y ago

jayfuerstenberg 13y ago

Surprising that it took this long to introduce the middle finger as a standard character. Emails will never be the same again.

frozenport 13y ago
....................../´¯/) ....................,/¯../ .................../..../ ............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸ ........../'/.../..../......./¨¯\ ........('(...´...´.... ¯~/'...') .........\.................'...../ ..........''...\.......... _.·´ ............\..............( ..............\.............\...

xrt 13y ago

They lost me when they went to 21 bits.

xrt 13y ago
So a middle finger gets fewer downvotes than a technical commentary. awesome.
- derleth 13y ago
  That wasn't a technical commentary.
nikbackm 13y ago
You mean they should have stayed at 16 bits? What would happen to all the characters that don't fit in that case, better luck in other standards?

brownbat 13y ago

The current dispute between Marshallese and Latvian is a phenomenal example of the sort of puzzles here. Apparently the Marshallese require some characters to display with cedillas, and Latvian has characters traditionally named "(some letter) WITH CEDILLA" even though they are displayed with commas... so if you just say "LETTER WITH CEDILLA" it's now not clear whether you mean cedilla or comma, and correcting it would break Latvian. http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13128-latvian-marshal-adhoc.pdf http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13128-latvian-marshal-adhoc.... Not sure how they do this work without going slowly insane.

userulluipeste 13y ago
The same scenario - S and T with cedillas, used in Turkish and (used to be) used in Romanian. Only that Romanian letters should be with comma, not cedillas (on small scale the difference is not distinguishable). So it's Romanian vs Turkish? No, it isn't! S and T with commas were added for Romanian later (somewhere waaay separate from other Romanian diacritics) in the Unicode set and everybody is happy! ...and sane.
- brownbat 13y ago
  Latvian and Marshallese is slightly more confusing, because Latvian commas are already called cedillas in the unicode names, despite not actually being cedillas. Sure, they'll just extend by adding something like "MARSHALLESE CEDILLA" to refer to actual cedillas. But it still must be frustrating to discover areas where traditional orthographic names are ambiguous or even misleading.