Re: Cool Unicode and GNOME
- From: Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>
- To: Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net>
- Cc: marketing list <marketing-list gnome org>
- Subject: Re: Cool Unicode and GNOME
- Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 15:47:41 -0400
This is certainly a nice feature we can push, and something we have
been for a while when we talk about i18n/l10n. I guess I'm not seeing
why this is new, or what has changed to make it more relevant now than
it was when we became UTF-8 smart in 2001?
Luis
On 6/12/05, Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net> wrote:
Okay, it looks like a new fad is about to begin, and GNOME can be a bit
lucky here, marketing-wise.
I am not talking about major marketing initiatives here, just something
small and grassroots style.
First, see:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion/browse_thread/thread/8a4a52e52c5613ad/bf61f4cbe16e1108
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion/browse_thread/thread/327b39b22f180856/2d30fda4b789a55c
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion/browse_thread/thread/cb89619736dff048/332fa24ce04ddff8
What's it about?
New software support Unicode, and Unicode offers a wide range of glyphs
(~=characters), and if you have the fonts for them,
you can put them anywhere. Such as your name in Google Groups, your name
in e-mails, your mail signature and so on.
It's like those Windows spyware for smilies, but without the spyware part.
What's in it for GNOME (actually it's GTK+)?
Comparatively, Windows users are "disadvantaged" in their way of adding
those characters, while GNOME users are in a better position.
1. A Windows user would have to use Alt+xxx, where "xxx" is not the
Unicode codepoint but some other ID. Apparently it does not cover all of
Unicode,
see http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html
However, GNOME users can use Ctrl+Shift+<codepoint> and pick any Unicode
character, even from Plane 1 (that's the ultra-exotic characters).
As a guidance for the codepoints, one can use http://www.unicode.org/charts/
2. A Windows user can use Character Map (in Accesories) to identify the
character and copy/paste it without Alt+xxx troubles.
Character Map is a bit braindamaged as it will show you characters only
if the selected fonts covers them. Else, it will not show any.
However, GNOME and Character Map (gucharmap) show you all the Unicode
groups, filling together characters so that your list of chars is
much more complete. Then, you can copy/paste.
What to do then?
* Start using these and tell the world that, "Oh, I use GNOME and this
is how I get them".
* Make sure the freefont package is included in your distro, as it
covers quite a few of those interesting characters.
* More free fonts with better coverage of Unicode would be nice.
A sample:
*☰☃☂☣★☰
*
☎ me please so we can go out to the ☼ and play ♞ (that's just
chess☺). I am ♑ and I love ☮.
Simos/Σίμος
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