Re: Unicode fonts - Re: Why do I find ^L in elisp code?

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> [2021-05-24 18:03]:
> > Date: Mon, 24 May 2021 17:24:54 +0300
> > From: Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>
> > Cc: help-gnu-emacs <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> > 
> > These letters like 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 should be supported by every
> > English screen reader, regardless
> 
> How far are you prepared to go with these ridiculous "should be
> supported" requirements?

That is up to screen reader authors to decide. Language is ever
changing. Before some decades we did not have computer for language
development, now we have it. Meanings are everywhere. It is up to
screen reader to try to decipher such meanings.

Just as the language is constantly adapting and changing to reflect
our changing lives, experiences and culture, so do the written and
digital symbols by which we express various meanings.

Example is for word 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 expressed with mathematial sans-serif bold
Unicode chars that gives us 9000+ results on Bing.com:
https://www.bing.com/search?q=%f0%9d%97%b3%f0%9d%98%82%f0%9d%97%bb%f0%9d%97%bb%f0%9d%98%86&search=&first=61&FORM=PERE5

Humans do express meanings by using mathematical sans-serif bold
Unicode, including all other possible Unicode characters, bill𝗶ons of
times.

Combinations are many, it is not easy work, it is up to authors to
decide what to support, and what not. 

> Would you also like "реасе" to be supported by English screen
> readers, for example?

Definitely, just that I don't understand the meaning of your
question. Do you mean that piece and peace would be spoken same? Do
you think the ☮?

Good screen readers should be built-in into OS, be part of the OS, and
they should by default support all languages on the planet wherever OS
is distributed. Because we don't work organized as ants, we may never
accomplish such goal, we work as human.

> You are judging characters by their appearance, which is incorrect.

Yes, surely I understand it may be technically incorrect, though
humanely it gives a style even in those cases where text style cannot
be otherwise assigned. For example in search engines, email subjects,
social media interactions, and so on. The 9000 search results show
that 9000 authors most probably don't even know that those Latin
characters have some other purposes. The trend will continue, in few
years it will be maybe 50000 results or 100,000 results, all with
meanings easily interpreted by humans. Screen reader authors may
decide to support such.

> Characters should be judged by their codepoints and their
> attributes, not by how they look in some particular font.

(•◡•) Maybe yes, maybe yes, but we cannot tell that to thousands of
people who already use it. Language is changing, written language is
also changing. People communicate.

In terms of a program if there is nothing mathematical and program
finds several let us say mathematical bold Unicode characters, that
program can replace it with normal letters and read as such. It is
also possible to recognize if letters belong to the English language
before reading it.



Jean

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