Variation Sequences (and L2-11/059)

Ken Whistler via Unicode unicode at unicode.org
Wed Mar 13 11:48:25 CDT 2019


On 3/13/2019 2:42 AM, Janusz S. Bień via Unicode wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Mon, Jul 16 2018 at  7:07 +02, Janusz S. Bień via Unicode wrote:
>> FAQ (http://unicode.org/faq/vs.html) states:
>>
>>      For historic scripts, the variation sequence provides a useful tool,
>>      because it can show mistaken or nonce glyphs and relate them to the
>>      base character. It can also be used to reflect the views of
>>      scholars, who may see the relation between the glyphs and base
>>      characters differently. Also, new variation sequences can be added
>>      for new variant appearances (and their relation to the base
>>      characters) as more evidence is discovered.
> I'm proof-reading a paper where I quote the above fragment and to my
> surprise I noticed it's no longer present in the FAQ.

That text is, in fact, still present on the FAQ page in question:

https://www.unicode.org/faq/vs.html#18

>
> So my question are:
>
> 1. Does the change mean the change of the official policy of the
> Consortium?

Your premise here, however, is mistaken. The FAQ pages do *not*, and 
never have represented official policy of the Unicode Consortium. The 
individual FAQ entries are contributed by many people -- some 
attributed, and some not. They are updated or added to periodically by 
various editors, in response to feedback, or as old entries grow 
out-dated, or new issues arise. Those updates are editorial, and do not 
reflect any official decision process by Unicode technical committees or 
officers. The FAQ main page itself points out that "The FAQs are 
contributed by many people," and invites the public to submit possible 
new entries for editing and addition to the list of FAQs.

For official technical content, refer to the published technical 
specifications themselves, which are carefully controlled, versioned, 
and archived.

For official policies of the Unicode Consortium, refer to the Unicode 
Consortium policies page, which is also carefully controlled:

https://www.unicode.org/policies/policies.html

>
> 2. Are the archival versions of the FAQ available somewhere?

https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.unicode.org/faq/


>
> 3. Are the changes to the FAQ documented somehow (a version control
> system?)?

No.

--Ken



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