Re: Cool Unicode and GNOME

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

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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