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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 09:36:35 +0000
To: unicode@unicode.org
From: Michael Everson <everson@evertype.com>
Subject: Re: Unicode and Security
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At 13:27 +0900 2002-02-05, Gaspar Sinai wrote:

>Just because some companies who have influence on Unicode
>Consortium use some algorithm, like backing store and re-mapping,
>it does  not mean that this is the only way.  And I don't even
>think they  do in cases when character conversion is necessary.

Backing store and remapping are fundamental principles of Unicode. 
They are implemented by people who want to implement the Unicode 
standard.

>For me it is very imprtant what a naive user sees on the screen.

For me, too.

>Yudit does convert the input to view order and back. Text
>direction and  end of line is clearly indicated. [...]
>
>If the standard wants me to confuse the user, I would rather dump the
>standard than comply.

I haven't been able to follow how I, the user, am confused by the 
Unicode Standard. It sounds to me as though you want a "Show 
Invisibles" option to disassemble Hebrew or Arabic text and display 
them in LTR order without any ligation so that the user can see what 
is in the backing store. That's a valid thing to want to do, but it's 
a special case of rendering, which has little to do with the 
algorithm.

>I wish there was another world character standard besides
>Unicode and not only  half-hearted attempts like bytext.
>Talking about characters: I think  bi-di should not be in
>Unicode  Standard because it is not a character.
>It is an algorithm.

Yes, it is. The Unicode Standard does not just encode characters. It 
also provides tools for implementation.

>I feel sorry for interrupting in the "Let's praise and
>celebrate Unicode" mood of this mailing list.

We like Unicode. We work to make it better. Sometimes people come to 
us with problems that aren't problems, or raise issues that have been 
dealt with many times before. Sometimes people bring us real problems 
that need real solutions. We're an intelligent bunch, methinks, and 
we can tell the difference. Unicode may have warts, but it's a lot 
better than ISO 2022.
-- 
Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com
