[EXT]Re: Why missing characters and empty code points?

[Doug Ewell]

Chandler wrote:

> Amazing this and other previously-created characters have not been
> duplicated, how on earth can you keep track of it all?

That’s what the files I mentioned are for.

> Wonder if it is or could be possible in the future to use links in the
> charts, in the same way file systems do?  That way the same character
> would show up in 2134 and 1D4C4 but only exist physically in one
> space...

That would not be a good idea. File systems allow you to create a link “bar” to an existing file “foo” so that you can refer to the file as either “foo” or “bar” and everything will just work. There is no harm in this and it is a good thing.

By contrast, creating the appearance that a character actually encoded at 2134 also exists at 1D4C4 would mislead people into thinking they could represent it in text as either 2134 or 1D4C4, and everything would just work. It would not, and promoting this kind of misinformation would harm stability of both the text and the standard.

What you probably are looking for is some sort of interactive code chart, such that when you hover over a reserved cell, you can see applicable cross-reference information. But the Unicode organization has tried very hard to get people to understand that Unicode is more than just the code charts. You would be better served, if you have questions about how things work in Unicode or why there are “missing characters and empty code points,” to make yourself familiar with the Unicode Character Database (https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/).

As John said, if you are using Windows you can also take advantage of the wonderful BabelPad editor. There is hardly a day that I sit down at a PC and don’t open it at least once.

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Doug Ewell, CC, ALB | Lakewood, CO, US | ewellic.org