1350 Unicode Appendix G Outline G.1 Introduction G.2 (Web hosting directory)
1350 Unicode Appendix G Outline G.1 Introduction G.2 Unicode Transformation Formats G.3 Characters and Glyphs G.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Unicode G.5 Unicode Consortium s Web Site G.6 Using Unicode G.7 Character Ranges Summary Terminology Self-Review Exercises Answers to Self-Review Exercises Exercises G.1 Introduction The use of inconsistent character encodings (i.e., numeric values associated with characters) when developing global software products causes serious problems because computers process information using numbers. For example, the character a is converted to a numeric value so that a computer can manipulate that piece of data. Many countries and corporations have developed their own encoding systems that are incompatible with the encoding systems of other countries and corporations. For example, the Microsoft Windows operating system assigns the value 0xC0 to the character A with a grave accent, while the Apple Macintosh operating system assigns that same value to an upside-down question mark. This results in the misrepresentation and possible corruption of data because the data is not processed as intended. In the absence of a widely implemented universal character encoding standard, global software developers had to localize their products extensively before distribution. Localization includes the language translation and cultural adaptation of content. The process of localization usually includes significant modifications to the source code (such as the conversion of numeric values and the underlying assumptions made by programmers), which results in increased costs and delays releasing the software. For example, some Englishspeaking programmers might design global software products assuming that a single character can be represented by one byte. However, when those products are localized for Asian markets, the programmer s assumptions are no longer valid; thus, the majority, if not the entirety, of the code needs to be rewritten. Localization is necessary with each release of a version. By the time a software product is localized for a particular market, a newer version, which needs to be localized as well, may be ready for distribution. As a result, it is cumbersome and costly to produce and distribute global software products in a market where there is no universal character encoding standard. In response to this situation, the Unicode Standard, an encoding standard that facilitates the production and distribution of software, was created. The Unicode Standard outlines a specification to produce consistent encoding of the world s characters and symbols. Software products that handle text encoded in the Unicode Standard need to be localized, but the localization process is simpler and more efficient because the numeric values need not be converted and the assumptions made by programmers about the character encoding are universal. The Unicode Standard is maintained by a nonprofit organization called the
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