[somewhat off topic] straw poll

[Richard Wordingham]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 18:04:33 +0000
Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft.com> wrote:

> The questions are framed around this hypothetical scenario: Suppose I
> were to post a message to the list describing some experiment I did,
> creating a Web page containing (say) some Latin characters - not
> obscure, just-added-in-Unicode-8 characters, but ones that have been
> in the standard for some time; that my process for creating the file
> was to use (say) Notepad and entering HTML numeric character
> references; and that my findings were that it worked.
> 
> Q1: Would you find that to be an interesting post that adds makes
> your participation in the list more useful, or would you find it a
> noisy distraction that reduces the value you get from participating
> in the list?

Q1. It would tell me nothing I didn't know.  That is because the usual
expectation is now that Unicode works, so failures are of greater
interest.  Of course, news that significant hold-outs against Unicode
had seen the light would also be useful.

On the other hand, some people might respond with useful alternative
tricks for arbitrary text entry - keyboards that will take hex input
as an exceptional case (e.g. m17n Unicode for BMP on many Linux
systems), alt/x in Word, a reminder of the existence of MSKLC and
Tavultesoft keyman for making one's own keyboards and so on, and it
could become a useful thread for some lurkers.

> Q2: If I were to send messages along that line on a regular basis,
> would that add value to your participation in the list, or reduce it?

If nothing useful happened, it would probably reduce, but a hint of the
week thread would be tolerable and excused by the thought that it may be
helping some people.  And then I would probably learn something useful,
and my attitude would become more favourable.

> Q3: If 50 people (still a small portion of the list membership) were
> to send messages along that line on a regular basis, would that add
> value to your participation in the list, or reduce it?

They'd probably soon run out of new, useful or interesting things to
say.

So, what has become of Sarasvati?  She hasn't scolded list participants
for a long time.

Richard.