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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi Folks,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unicode make it possible to write things in different languages.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For example, rather than this XML:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><Number_Students>42</Number_Students><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a Bengali-speaking person can write this:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span>>42</<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span>><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or, in a programming language, rather than this assignment statement:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> Number_Students = 42<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">a Bengali-speaking person can write this:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">
সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span> = 42<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s awesome.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But, but, but, … how come that universality doesn’t extend to digits?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How come we can only use these digits: 0 (hex 30), 1 (hex 31), …, 9 (hex 39)?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why, for example, can’t a Bengali-speaking person use the Bengali digits: Bengali digit 0 (U+09E6), Bengali digit 1 (U+09E7), …, Bengali digit 9 (U+09EF)?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why, for example, can’t a Bengali-speaking person create XML such as this:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span>><strong><span style="font-size:13.5pt;line-height:106%;font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">৪</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">à¨</span></strong></<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span>><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">or write a program assignment statement like this:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">
সংখà§à¦¯à¦¾</span>_<span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">ছাতà§à¦°</span> = <strong>
<span style="font-size:13.5pt;line-height:106%;font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif;color:black;background:white">৪</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Nirmala UI",sans-serif">à¨</span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let me explain why I assert that the Bengali-speaking person “cannot†do that.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Numbers in an XML document or in a program are just strings and, to perform arithmetic operations on them, those string numbers must be converted to actual numbers. I looked at the source code for the C function (strtol) that converts strings
to numbers and here is the key to how it converts a character digit to a number digit:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> digit_number = digit_character - '0’<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yikes!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That generates a number digit by treating the character digit as a number and subtracting the number corresponding to the character ‘0’. For example, if the character digit is ‘4’ (hex 34) then when we subtract ‘0’ (hex 30) we get the number
4. Perfect! But ……… only if we allow European digits (0, 1, …, 9). Clearly, if we were to subtract ‘0’ (hex 30) from the Bengali digit 4 we do not get the number 4.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thus I conclude:<o:p></o:p></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
When expressing numbers, the only digits that can be used are the European digits<o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
Unicode is universal, but that universality does not apply to digits or numbers<o:p></o:p></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal">Obviously I am not understanding something correctly. Please help me to understand.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">/Roger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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