ANN: unicode 2.8

[Terry Reedy]

On 1/1/2021 3:48 PM, garabik-news-2005-05 at kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk wrote:
> Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>> On 12/31/2020 9:36 AM, garabik-news-2005-05 at kassiopeia.juls.savba.sk wrote:
>>> unicode is a simple python command line utility that displays
>>> properties for a given unicode character, or searches
>>> unicode database for a given name.
>> ...
>>> Changes since previous versions:
>>>
>>>    * display ASCII table (either traditional with --ascii or the new
>>>      EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement version with --brexit-ascii)

The latter option implied to me that the agreement defines an 
intentional variation on standard ASCII.  I immediately wondered whether 
they had changed the actual 7-bit ascii code, which would be egregiously 
bad, or made yet another variation of 8-bit 'extended ascii', perhaps to 
ensure inclusion both the pound and euro signs.

So I googled 'brexit ascii'.  And was surprised to discover that there 
is no such thing as 'brexit ascii', just yet another cock-up in text 
preparation.  (I have seen worse when a digital text of mine was mangled 
during markup.  Fortunately, I was allowed to read the page proofs.  But 
I still don't understand how spelling errors were introduced within 
words I had spelled correctly.)

>> Are you reproducing it with bugs included?
>> How is that of any use to anyone?

I followed this with links to justify my claim and question:

A tweet linking the treaty annex page
https://twitter.com/thejsa_/status/1343291595899207681

A stackoverflow question and discussion of the bugs and oddities.
https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/61178/why-does-the-eu-uk-trade-deal-have-the-7-bit-ascii-table-as-an-appendix

In the latter are mentions of other text, perhaps copy-pasted from the 
1990s recommending the now deprecated SHA1 and referring to Netscape 
Navigator 4 as a modern browser.  Clearly, in the rush to finish, the 
annex was not properly reviewed by current technical experts.

> Including the (correct) ASCII table has been a long term, low priority -
> I am using ascii(1) utility reasonably often and it makes sense to
> reproduce this functionality.
> 
> And when implementing this, it was a no-brainer to include also the
> brexit varian (verbatim).

I assume you meant 'variation' and not Varian, the maker of scientific 
instruments.

But why do you consider it a no-brainer to include nonsense in your 
program and mislead people?  People already have enough trouble dealing 
with text coding.

> After all, given the blood and sweat and tears
> shed during the negotiations, I am sure each and every line of the
> Agreement has been combed and (re)negotiated over and over by experienced
> negotiators and verified an army of experts in the fields <sarcasm off/>

What are we supposed to make of this?  That you already knew that 
'brexit-ascii' is nonsense?


-- 
Terry Jan Reedy