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RE: UTF-8+names

• To: "'Bob Foster'" <bob@o...>, "'Tim Bray'" <tbray@t...>, "'Miles Sabin'" <miles@m...>
• Subject: RE: UTF-8+names
• From: "Alessandro Triglia" <sandro@m...>
• Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 19:17:46 -0400
• Cc: <xml-dev@l...>
• Importance: Normal
• In-reply-to: <1a8f01c3968d$3514b310$6601a8c0@snobird>

I have another comment.

What is that those users have actually been asking for?  What is their
actual need?  Do they want to be able to display and/or enter a rare
character when using a user interface that doesn't support that character
directly?  

If so, isn't this entirely a software issue?  Can't existing XML browsers
and editors just be extended so as to support *names* for characters, and we
leave the encodings alone?

For example, if I want to enter a ?   (the cyrillic character) using a
keyboard that does not support cyrillic, I can currently use some
OS-specific means (say, the character map applet in Windows plus a
copy/paste).    If an XML editor had the inherent ability to accept any
Unicode character by opening a dialog box showing a list of Unicode names,
that would be sufficient for many purposes.  Likewise, if an XML viewer had
the ability to display the Unicode name of a rare Unicode character when the
cursor is above a character, that could be sufficient for many purposes.
If some program needs to cope with display hardware that doesn't know how to
display a  ? , the software itself can be written so as to show the Unicode
name of the ?  (CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHCHA) or some shorter local
designation, instead of a small square.

Recalling one of the cases mentioned, can't an XML editor (as a
product-specific feature) allow the user to enter  something like    
and change it on the fly to the Unicode character   NON-BREAK SPACE
depending on the context?  Can't this XML editor subsequently display a tool
tip over the character?   Do we really need to  *encode*  the NON-BREAK
SPACE  as a byte sequence  & n b s p ;   ?

What fraction of those use cases would be left out, if the issue were
regarded as a software issue?

Alessandro

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