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Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View

• To: davidc@n... (David Carlisle)
• Subject: Re: Character Entities: An XML Core WG View
• From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
• Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 12:04:03 -0500 (EST)
• Cc: jcowan@r..., xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <200211041640.QAA01189@p...> from "David Carlisle" at Nov 04, 2002 04:40:28 PM

David Carlisle scripsit:

> OK since you assert that this is so easy, what would _you_ suggest to do
> about asymp.
> 
> docbook (and the unicode ISO mappings) maps this entity to a cup-cap symbol.
> U224D
> 
> (X)HTML maps it to a double tilde U2248

Come on,  this sort of problem is trivial.  Deprecate the name "asymp" 
in both standards and devise distinct names for the two characters that
are shared by the two standards.

A *real* problem might be: standard A represents all the JIS ideographs
with entities based on their JIS codepoints in the form ideoxxxx, whereas
standard B uses the Unicode codepoints in the form ideoxxxx.
Or something like the gamma/Gamma case I mentioned earlier.

> > I have yet to see a principled defense for supporting inconsistency here.
> 
> I have yet to see a principled defence why the spelling of defence
> should change as you cross the atlantic.

Well, "defense" reveals the Latin etymology better, but "defence" reveals
the close connection, etymological and semantic, to "fence" better.
(Nobody writes "fense".)

> [E]very single person who's attempted to define these
> mappings has ended up being inconsistent with everyone else.

*Mildly* inconsistent.  *Resolvably* inconsistent.  AFAIK.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of inconsistency is for good
standards weenies to do nothing.
	--Not Edmund Burke

-- 
John Cowan        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan          jcowan@r...
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Cordelia Vorkosigan

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