[KS] unicode

[Frank Hoffmann]

See! THAT is were the power and authority has shifted to. Thanks for 
making my point.
\uac10\uc0ac\ud569\ub2c8\ub2e4\u002e
It is not anymore the Kaiser Wilhelms and Macbeths in combination with 
the ivory tower scholars that set the tune. 

And it's all supposed to be "democratic" -- because part of the process 
was democratic (for those who cared). The rules of the game are no more 
complex than before, but you can't anymore revolt, that's the 
difference. 

Unicode certainly is multicultural. It sets its multicultural dictates. 
Everyone will follow. When is a question of time only -- that, at 
least, is my prognosis -- as opposed to the 
will-survive-the-nation-state forecast. Unicode does not treat Chinese 
characters as a singular script system but as living, developing script 
systemS used by VARIOUS languages. 

Much of the technical issue (which, as just pointed out, is clearly not 
just a technical issue but one that in very direct ways relates to 
power relations and is partially responsible for shifting power) is 
certainly related to "reversibility." Machines want and need as much 
reversibility as possible. So, enter code like this 
감사합니다.
into Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/) and it can 
understand and translate it because of that reversibility. That just 
makes sense. Knowing this, and seeing that Chinese characters are no 
more that "universal" as they once were (obviously so because of 
another political and thus cultural dictate), the machine logic seems 
to only leave one solution -- to offer different encodings, depending 
on input (so they can be reversed accordingly, and your online Kimchi 
order in Seoul does not accidentally convert into a dead-mouse order in 
some Chinese village, where it is produced and from where it is 
shipped). Obviously, though, that happens quite often, given how Kimchi 
taste these days. We'll have to find the code problems ....

Andrew, your finding below (koto / goto, etc.) -- I am not sure at all. 
My speciality is more networking, not fonts. Maybe Professors Charles 
Muller or Milan Hejtmanek (if they follow the list?) might have a 
better understanding. ... But I try to find out when I have the time 
and report back.


Best,
Frank


On Fri, 29 May 2015 21:26:17 +0900, Andrew wrote:
> Dear Frank,
> 
> Thanks for the explanation and illuminating converter tool.
> 
> It seems in Japanese the input system must work differently because, 
> e.g. koto 事, goto 事 and ji 事 all produce the same 事 \u4e8b result.
> 
> Although this may sound like I'm going back on my previous argument, 
> if it is not for a technical reason (as the Japanese example seems to 
> demonstrate), it would be disturbing if Unicode and digital 
> Sino-Korean civilization starts treating 요 遼 and 료 遼 as different 
> characters. That is,as well as being inconvenient for database 
> searches.
> 
> sincerely
> Andrew
> 

--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com