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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/30/2023 9:54 AM, David Starner via
Unicode wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMZ=zj6jo2qr-5SWVAvhxgW205o6O5tUggpKzsWKFGkwa6n5tg@mail.gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">There doesn't seem to be an inverted asterism in Unicode. Is there a
good reason there's not?
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Monthly_scrap_book,_for_February.pdf/24">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Monthly_scrap_book,_for_February.pdf/24</a>
shows the example I have at hand, from an 1832 English-language
periodical from Scotland.
</pre>
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<p><font face="Candara">The primary reason would seem to be that no
successful proposal has been submitted.</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">A successful proposal would establish that
this cannot be rendered with a simple text sequence and also
that this usage isn't a one-off.</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">As rendered on my browser, the transcription
shows a text sequence, but with the defect of being composed
using a five-pointed asterisk in the lower position. (I don't
see any use of CSS).</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">I note that the original lacks overlap which
makes it impossible to be certain whether the typesetter used a
single slug or three.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">In making an encoding decision, several
determinations would have to be made.</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">(1) does the attested usage rise to the
level where encoding is warranted (or is this limited to a
single document or otherwise not worth preserving in plain
text)?<br>
<br>
(2) does the example represent a single glyph or a sequence?</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">(3) if a sequence, is every element encoded?</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">(4) if a single glyph, is it sufficient if
it can be represented using some rich text? (italics, rotation,
etc).</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">We don't really have an algorithm yet for
deriving these determinations unambiguously from the input data;
it would be best if we had a proposal on record so we can have a
disposition on record. Whether positive or negative, that would
help settle future requests.<br>
<br>
At this point, there's a question whether the proposal should
request a lower, six-pointed asterisk or a the inverted
asterism, and whether it is possible to adduce enough data to
help in making that decision.</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">What we need for cases like this would be a
place for proposals that are in a public "pending" state, so
that people other than the proposer can adduce additional
evidence over time without the need to immediately come down one
way or the other.</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara">A./<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Candara"><br>
</font></p>
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