Why incomplete subscript/superscript alphabet ?

[Doug Ewell]

Oren Watson wrote:

> Would it be appropriate to submit an omnibus proposal for encoding all
> remaining english letters in subscript, small caps, and superscript in
> the SMP for the purpose of not arbitrarily constraining the use of
> unicode for new linguistic theories and ideas, similar to the
> mathematical characters?

<imho>

"For new theories and ideas" is a red flag. For letters in writing
systems, it's traditionally been important to show how the character(s)
would be used in current, real-world scenarios, not for some future,
as-yet unknown purpose. It's likely that the proposals to add the
existing subscript and superscript and smallcap letters were required to
include such rationales.

Using the math alphabets as a precedent for encoding something might not
be an effective strategy, as they are often considered to be exceptional
and not analogous to characters used for writing human languages.

</imho>


--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, CO, US | ewellic.org