Re: Internal number storage

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2002 21:02:38 +0100
 the following exchange took place -

> > Nadim Shaikli wrote:
> > >
> > > I can see two issue here,
> > > 
> > >  1. Person write a document in which both "hindi" and "non-hindi"
> > >     numbers are used, how is the distinction made (if all numbers are
> > >     stored as ASCII) ?  if its based on context is this procedure
> > >     formalized somehow (to get consistency among the various
> > >     applications) ?
>
> Roozbeh Pournader wrote:
>
> > You're right, and that's a major problem. It is happening a lot here in 
> > Iran, where both kind of numbers are used in documents. MS apps usually 
> > have a menu somewhere that's lets the user select from "always European", 
> > "always Arabic-Indic", and "automatic". The automatic method tries to be 
> > as intelligent as possible, but is very bad at that.
> > 
> > And no, it is not specified anywhere.

[snip snip]

> > > What does the unicode (or any other) standard say about which
> > > encodings should be stored (if they don't care and don't state
> > > anything, who does) ?
> >
> > W3C cares, and Unicode cares. Both recommend storing the form that the 
> > user sees on the screen.
>
> Chahine Hamila wrote:
>
> The only trade in the unified model is for context dependent digits display.
> This can be done in a bidi-style (or shaping-style) approach at a high level.
> Not all implementations are perfect indeed, but that's more due to a lack of
> standard in this very particular case than to the impossibility of
> implementing one. In other words, MS and other software developers were
> right in their unifying approach, what we might want to do would rather be
> to establish a standard around this issue, especially the context dependent
> numbering display.

Well, I'd suggest we move to standardize this issue for the sake of
consistency (that's why things are standards :-).  I really don't care
which encoding (ASCII or non-ASCII) gets stored or how things are
defaulted, but those two issues should be noted in bold somewhere for
all application developers to follow to better serve the users.

The standard should also clearly discuss the merits of contextual
"number shaping" for those documents that will need to intermix number
displays and set any guidelines regarding this matter in general (including
the need to have an option to default from one visual to the other, etc).

Any objections ? if not which consortium would this fall under ?

 - Nadim


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! 
http://auctions.yahoo.com