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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2024-04-05 13:31, William_J_G
Overington via Unicode wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:35545470.bbb1.18eaff5ca02.Webtop.117@btinternet.com">
<p><span style="font-size:18px;">…So I write to seek opinions
please on whether it would be a good idea that that tag format
could be applied so as to uniquely encode all those acceptable
emoji that have been formally proposed to Unicode Inc. yet
have not been selected for the annual quota.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:18px;">The emoji thus encoded might not
become implemented by mainstream platform businesses yet there
could be good opportunities for independent artists and
fontmakers and would go some way to bringing a good result to
the proposers of otherwise unencoded emoji proposals. If there
were a practice that fonts supporting in whole or in part such
emoji had visible glyphs for the tag digit characters, an
unsupported tag emoji would be indicated by the displayed
digit sequence.…</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In my humble opinion, no, this would not be a good idea.</p>
<p>The underlying issue is that people want to mix pictures with
their text. </p>
<p>You are pointing out all the ways that using the mechanism of
text to deliver the pictures to the text stream is difficult. One
must persuade the UTC to encode the picture as an emoji. Platform
businesses must support the emoji in fonts and input methods.
Font makers must add the picture to their fonts. Users must learn
that the picture is available as an emoji, and use it. Because of
all this external cost, the UTC encoding process appropriately
includes high barriers to entry.</p>
<p>Why not take all that energy, and put it towards encouraging
application developers to provide ways to mix pictures as pictures
into the text stream? Sometimes these pictures are called
"seals", or "stamps", or "reactions". Once the application
developer allows users to insert arbitrary pictures into the text
stream, then users can directly ask the independent artists for
images matching the proposed emoji which did not meet the annual
quota, and use them immediately. There need be no wait for an
encoding process, or platform support, or anything else.</p>
<p>Why is it so terribly important to use the mechanism of text to
deliver pictures in text, instead of using a application-based
mechanism of mixed text and pictures?</p>
<p>Best regards,<br>
—Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
. --Jim DeLaHunt, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jdlh@jdlh.com">jdlh@jdlh.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.jdlh.com/">http://blog.jdlh.com/</a> (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://jdlh.com/">http://jdlh.com/</a>)
multilingual websites consultant, Vancouver, B.C., Canada</pre>
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