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    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">In this context it is interesting that
      RFC7992 suggests use of a character code and, incidentally, makes
      the case that there are use-cases where reliance on external
      images is explicitly ruled out.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">This underscores the "chicken-and-egg"
      problem we so often encounter in character encoding. Unless a
      character is encoded, it can't be used in a text-only environment.<br>
      <br>
      In this particular case, my reading would be that there's nothing
      inherently favoring an image-only solution. It just happens that
      this was the only way to go in early implementations, but as
      RFC7992 reminds us, there are use cases where that is not an
      option.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">As a result, as I wrote in an earlier
      part of this thread, I can't get the warm and fuzzies about
      applying the "app iconography" principle here. Particularly not
      for something that always appears in connection with and part of a
      text block. There are many other examples that are much more
      removed from text and to which that principle is more properly
      applicable.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">A./<br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/18/2024 10:13 AM, Peter Constable
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
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        <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">></span>
          If I were a submitter, I would treat something like the
          citation of RFC7992 then not as something that "settles" an
          encoding question, but one that calls for further research to
          see whether that particular convention is found in (enough)
          other places to help reach a decision.<o:p></o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal">Completely agree with that.<o:p></o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal">However, there is another factor in this
          that UTC will consider and _<i>has</i>_ considered: is the
          symbol used in public text data interchange. Wrt external link
          symbol, UTC has previously decided that this falls into the
          general class of symbols used in app iconography and that that
          evidence based on such usage is not sufficient for encoding as
          a textual character.<o:p></o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal">Peter<span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
        <div>
          <div
style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
            <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">
                Asmus Freytag <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:asmusf@ix.netcom.com"><asmusf@ix.netcom.com></a>
                <br>
                <b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, April 17, 2024 5:56 PM<br>
                <b>To:</b> Peter Constable <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:pgcon6@msn.com"><pgcon6@msn.com></a>;
                Marius Spix <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:marius.spix@web.de"><marius.spix@web.de></a><br>
                <b>Cc:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org">unicode@corp.unicode.org</a><br>
                <b>Subject:</b> Re: Aw: Re: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: External
                Link Symbol<o:p></o:p></span></p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">This spells out what I tried to imply by
            warning against overinterpreting this example. However,
            whether something is a normative specification, and the
            limits of its normative scope is always only one aspect.
            Another aspect is whether it represents a record of
            somebody's explicit convention for what to do for a given
            feature, such as "anchor" links in the current example.<br>
            <br>
            Having a written convention that documents intent is
            preferable over relying on mere observation, for example,
            noticing that certain documents or certain platforms just
            happen to behave in a certain way. But, on it's own, just
            because something is written down is certainly not enough to
            suggest that the convention is common, let alone universal.<o:p></o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">From Unicode's perspective, a convention
            does not have to be normative for general purpose documents
            to be taken into account in making informed encoding
            decisions. The degree to which it is followed in practice
            (both in its original domain as well as in analogous cases)
            is usually more important.<o:p></o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">If I were a submitter, I would treat
            something like the citation of RFC7992 then not as something
            that "settles" an encoding question, but one that calls for
            further research to see whether that particular convention
            is found in (enough) other places to help reach a decision.
            Alternatively, it might serve as a data point for the
            conclusion that there's no single convention (with further
            research needed to find out whether this represents a case
            of a small number of alternate coexisting conventions, or
            the case of something where the real world hasn't settled on
            anything). <o:p>
            </o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">A./<o:p></o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
        </div>
        <div>
          <p class="MsoNormal">On 4/17/2024 5:32 PM, Peter Constable
            wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
        </div>
        <blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
          <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Let’s be
              clear: all that RFC 7992 is doing is documenting the
              conventions used in the non-canonical HTML versions of
              IETF RFCs. Unless in some other context there is a
              specification that normatively references RFC 7992, it has
              no real import beyond the HTML versions of IETF RFCs.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Peter</span><o:p></o:p></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
          <div>
            <div
style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm">
              <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">
                  Unicode
                  <a href="mailto:unicode-bounces@corp.unicode.org"
                    moz-do-not-send="true"><unicode-bounces@corp.unicode.org></a>
                  <b>On Behalf Of </b>Asmus Freytag via Unicode<br>
                  <b>Sent:</b> Monday, April 15, 2024 7:35 AM<br>
                  <b>To:</b> Marius Spix <a
                    href="mailto:marius.spix@web.de"
                    moz-do-not-send="true"><marius.spix@web.de></a><br>
                  <b>Cc:</b> <a href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org"
                    moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">unicode@corp.unicode.org</a><br>
                  <b>Subject:</b> Re: Aw: Re: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re:
                  External Link Symbol</span><o:p></o:p></p>
            </div>
          </div>
          <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
          <div>
            <p class="MsoNormal">On 4/15/2024 6:55 AM, Marius Spix
              wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
          </div>
          <blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
            <div>
              <div>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">The
                    pilcrow sign is offically mentioned in RFC 7992. See
                    section 5.2. So I would consider it the conventional
                    representation for anchor links.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
              </div>
              <div>
                <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> 
                  </span><o:p></o:p></p>
              </div>
            </div>
          </blockquote>
          <p>I would agree that it is "a convention" for representation
            of anchor links. It happens to work for English, as the
            pilcrow sign conventionally means "paragraph" and the intent
            in RFC7992 is to provide links to all paragraphs.<o:p></o:p></p>
          <p>However, the formatting of RFCs provided as HTML is a
            different beast from generic prescription for formatting all
            HTML documents. So this should not be over interpreted.<o:p></o:p></p>
          <p>A./<o:p></o:p></p>
          <blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
            <div>
              <div>
                <div>
                  <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> 
                    </span><o:p></o:p></p>
                  <div
style="border:none;border-left:solid #C3D9E5 1.5pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 8.0pt;margin-left:7.5pt;margin-top:7.5pt;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:3.75pt;-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;-webkit-line-break: after-white-space"
                    name="quote">
                    <div style="margin-bottom:7.5pt">
                      <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Gesendet:</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> Freitag,
                          12. April 2024 um 18:46 Uhr<br>
                          <b>Von:</b> "Asmus Freytag via Unicode" <a
                            href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org"
                            moz-do-not-send="true">
                            <unicode@corp.unicode.org></a><br>
                          <b>An:</b> <a
                            href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org"
                            moz-do-not-send="true"
                            class="moz-txt-link-freetext">unicode@corp.unicode.org</a><br>
                          <b>Betreff:</b> Re: Aw: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re:
                          External Link Symbol</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                    </div>
                    <div name="quoted-content">
                      <div>
                        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">The
                            first and last choice are arguably not the
                            most conventional representations for these.
                            They are, at best, fallbacks.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                      </div>
                      <div>
                        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
                      </div>
                      <div>
                        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">A./</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                      </div>
                      <div>
                        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
                      </div>
                      <div>
                        <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">On
                            4/12/2024 12:31 AM, Marius Spix via Unicode
                            wrote:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                      </div>
                      <blockquote
                        style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
                        <div>
                          <div>
                            <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">For
                                all these types of links existing
                                characters can be used:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                          </div>
                          <div>
                            <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
                          </div>
                          <div>
                            <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">anchor
                                links: U+00B6 ¶ PILCROW SIGN</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                          </div>
                          <div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">local
                                  links: U+1F517 </span><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif">🔗</span><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> LINK
                                  SYMBOL</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">broken
                                  links (also known
                                  as red-links): U+26D3 U+200D U+1F4A5
                                  CHAINS + ‍ZERO WIDTH JOINER
                                  + COLLISION SYMBOL</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">external
                                  links: U+2192
                                </span><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">→</span><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">
                                  RIGHTWARDS ARROW</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                            </div>
                            <div>
                              <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> 
                                </span><o:p></o:p></p>
                              <div
style="border:none;border-left:solid #C3D9E5 1.5pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 8.0pt;margin-left:7.5pt;margin-top:7.5pt;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:3.75pt">
                                <div style="margin-bottom:7.5pt">
                                  <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Gesendet:</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"> Donnerstag,
                                      11. April 2024 um 21:05 Uhr<br>
                                      <b>Von:</b> "Asmus Freytag via
                                      Unicode" <a
href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true">
                                        <unicode@corp.unicode.org></a><br>
                                      <b>An:</b> "Tom Moore" <a
href="mailto:tom.moore@microsoft.com" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"><tom.moore@microsoft.com></a>,
                                      "Sławomir Osipiuk"
                                      <a
                                        href="mailto:sosipiuk@gmail.com"
                                        target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"><sosipiuk@gmail.com></a>,
                                      "Asmus Freytag via Unicode"
                                      <a
href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"><unicode@corp.unicode.org></a><br>
                                      <b>Betreff:</b> Re: [EXTERNAL] Re:
                                      External Link Symbol</span><o:p></o:p></p>
                                </div>
                                <div>
                                  <p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">On
                                      4/11/2024 11:47 AM, Tom Moore
                                      wrote:<br>
                                      > Then multiply that by 2, for
                                      links that navigate current tab
                                      vs. request to open a new tab.<br>
                                      <br>
                                      Is there a link to samples for all
                                      of these as used in practice, or
                                      is<br>
                                      this just a theoretical
                                      distinction?<br>
                                      <br>
                                      A./<br>
                                      <br>
                                      ><br>
                                      > -----Original Message-----<br>
                                      > From: Unicode <a
href="mailto:unicode-bounces@corp.unicode.org" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true">
<unicode-bounces@corp.unicode.org></a> On Behalf Of Slawomir
                                      Osipiuk via Unicode<br>
                                      > Sent: Thursday, April 11,
                                      2024 9:28 AM<br>
                                      > To: asmusf <a
href="mailto:asmusf@ix.netcom.com" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"><asmusf@ix.netcom.com></a>;
                                      Asmus Freytag via Unicode
                                      <a
href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"><unicode@corp.unicode.org></a><br>
                                      > Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re:
                                      External Link Symbol<br>
                                      ><br>
                                      > There are actually three
                                      kinds of links that are
                                      distinguishable from each<br>
                                      > other:<br>
                                      ><br>
                                      > - A link to a different
                                      location in the current document
                                      (anchor link/jump<br>
                                      > link)<br>
                                      > - A link to a resource on the
                                      same network/domain as the current
                                      document (local link/relative
                                      link)<br>
                                      > - A link to a resource on a
                                      different network (external link)<br>
                                      ><br>
                                      > All those can appear as
                                      symbols, used contrastively,
                                      within a run of text.<br>
                                      > I'm very surprised these
                                      haven't already been encoded and
                                      that there is any controversy. The
                                      consortium doesn't care much for
                                      precendent, but come on, we have
                                      "play"and "eject" symbols encoded!<br>
                                      <br>
                                       </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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          <p> <o:p></o:p></p>
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        <p><o:p> </o:p></p>
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