Meeting at Unicode/Microsoft office, Mountain View, 2007-Jul-27
Participants:
Kat Momoi (Google)
Markus Scherer (Google)
Mark Davis (Google)
Ken Whistler (Sybase)
Present:
Rick McGowan (Unicode)
Eric Muller (Adobe)
Joe Becker (Unicode)
Criteria for list of Emoji symbols
- Source separation rules
- Follow existing cross-mapping tables
+ but tentatively disunified in some cases where the visual images were very different,
e.g., M symbol for Metro vs. Metro train image
- List selects any one of the multiple carrier's images, but for Unicode encoding
representative glyphs would have to be created
- Roundtrip (1:1) mapped symbols among carriers are unmarked (no background color)
- Best-fit fallback mappings are marked with gold background and a *
- Fallback mappings to sequences of codes are marked with + between the codes
- Fallback mappings to descriptive text rather than a symbol is marked with purple background
- Unicode character names: "black" and "white" usually mean "solid fill" vs. "hollow fill";
therefore, only mention color in a symbol name if the source-separation rule requires a distinction
Ken:
- Principle 1: Encoding symbols as characters abstracts away from colors.
Only use colors for distinction for the source-separation rule.
- Principle 2: Abstract away from animated behavior.
Only use animation for distinction for the source-separation rule.
Animated vs. un-animated hourglass:
- Ken: Map existing Unicode code point to the set of symbols that roundtrip between carriers,
and assign a new one for the symbols which use fallbacks.
Map to "least marked alternative".
Put "animation" into comment, not into character name.
- Mark would map existing Unicode code point to un-animated symbol, but not a strong opinion.
Consensus to follow Ken's suggestion.
Animation and other distinctions in general:
- Mark: If the distinction is relatively clear from the symbols, put it into the names,
otherwise number them (or similar) and put the distinctions into the comments.
Double-check names of existing Unicode characters (e.g., watch, full moon)
Moon phases:
- Ken: Carriers do not distinguish crescent moon phases, but Unicode does.
Therefore, encode a new symbol for "crescent moon" and comment that the orientation
does not matter.
Zodiac symbols:
- Ken: Unify animals with astrological symbols
- Mark: As a result, Unicode Zodiac symbols are allowed to be displayed with animal images
- Ken: Zodiac symbols, and characters in general, have a substantial range of glyph variation
- Mark: Want to discuss this in a larger group because of its implications
- Ken: As a linguist, this is a no-brainer
- Mark: Disunification in Unicode does not prevent roundtrips between carriers.
Mappings are possible like
x<->u1 ->y
x<- u2<->y
while carriers map
x<->y
- Ken: Avoid creating whole new signification for encoding distinctions.
- Mark: Can live with unification, especially for *sets of things*.
Minimize disunification for sets of corresponding entities.
Kat: Right now, hard to get buy-in from Japanese mobile carriers to change anything.
Mark: We respect the existing mappings between the carriers.
Eric: Unicode may be used on phones, which needs mapping tables.
Enclosed M vs. Metro:
- Ken: Enclosed M presents translation problem: Would have to be enclosed U in German.
- Mark: Safer to encode enclosed M and enclosed U and subway train separately,
like for currency symbols.