Re: [tlug] Re: Unicode

[Stephen Lee <sl@example.com>]

Thomas Piekenbrock <thomas.piekenbrock@example.com> wrote:
>  >> I am creating such a dictionary, and I can tell you that it is *not*
>  >> necessary to create a separate code point for every minor variation
>  >> in character form, since these differences can easily be represented
>  >> by font changes.
> 
>  > How do you do this?  If the same document contains 2 characters with
>  > the same code point how do you specify that one should be displayed as
>  > a Chinese character and the other as a Japanese character?
> 
> First: Differences are on the level of aesthetics, e.g. Kusakanmuri with 
> 3 or 4 strokes?

The number of strokes is significant in some contexts, e.g. dictionary
lookup, knowing the correct form for the language is preferable, so in
the ideal case the glyphs *should* be different to reflect this.

It is like spelling 'colour' as 'color'; it does not change the meaning
much, but some people will prefer it one way or the other, and mixing
usage e.g. using 'color' and 'flavour' in the same text for no good
reason can be considered ugly if not outright wrong.

Using a single glyph that looks language-neutral should only be
considered a compromise, not a solution, because some glyphs *are*
actually different between languages.

> Using one Unicode font with "Japanese flavour" and one with "Chinese 
> flavour" solves the problem.

That is assuming it is the same font.  Usually it is like Ariel and
Helvetica, i.e. they look similar but is not exactly the same, the
weight is off or the balance is different, etc.

> Regarding the fact that Japanese prefer 
> Minchotai (=Songti in China), while Mainland China uses Fangsongti a 
> lot, you may want different fonts anyway. Otherwise, if a mixed document 
> is for Chinese people, it is often ok to have the whole stuff with 
> Chinese flavour, because that is what you see mostly anyway with 
> Japanese text printed in China.

That again is assuming something not yet practical; most Chinese fonts
do not contain all Japanese characters (and don't forget hiragana and
katakana).  The usual result is ugliness from using a visibly different
font for the occasional 'missing' characters.  Better results can be
achieved by using Japanese font for Japanese part and Chinese font for
Chinese part, but this is not always done.

Stephen