Re: and how are they encoded?

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, John Cowan <cowan@...> wrote:

> suzmccarth scripsit:
>
> > I just wish that someone could persuade Unicode that the Indic
> > scripts are called Aksharamala not some term that comes from the
> > Amharic psalter. Did some India government representative agree

to

> > this term?
>
> A cocky novice once said to Stallman: "I can guess why the editor

is

> called Emacs, but why is the justifier called Bolio?". Stallman

replied

> forcefully, "Names are but names, 'Emac & Bolio's' is the name of

a con-

> fectionary shop in Boston-town. Neither of these men had anything

to do

> with the software."
>
> His question answered, yet unanswered, the novice turned to go, but
> Stallman called to him, "Neither Emac or Bolio had anything to do

with

> the ice cream shop, either."

Then someone ought to say "none of these names have anything to do
with anything." It should be written right into Unicode version 4.
I was beginning to suspect just that anyway.

I don't want to sound too miffed. Unicode will be used for what it
is. I see that. But, I keep wondering about things like "Chinese is
a largely monosyllabic language so an ideographic system suits it.
Is that true or just more Emac and Bolio?

Suzanne

> --
> It was dreary and wearisome. Cold clammy winter still held way in

this

> forsaken country. The only green was the scum of livid weed on

the dark

> greasy surfaces of the sullen waters. Dead grasses and rotting

reeds loomed

> up in the mists like ragged shadows of long-forgotten summers.
> --"The Passage of the Marshes"

http://www.ccil.org/~cowan