| 1 | Unicode support
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| 2 | ===============
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| 3 |
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| 4 | Last update: 2005-01-17, version 1.4
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| 5 |
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| 6 | Note: The original version of this document, which was maintained at
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| 7 | lanana.org as part of the Linux Assigned Names And Numbers Authority
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| 8 | (LANANA) project, is no longer existent. So, this version in the
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| 9 | mainline Linux kernel is now the maintained main document.
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| 10 |
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| 11 | Introduction
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| 12 | ------------
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| 13 |
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| 14 | The Linux kernel code has been rewritten to use Unicode to map
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| 15 | characters to fonts. By downloading a single Unicode-to-font table,
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| 16 | both the eight-bit character sets and UTF-8 mode are changed to use
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| 17 | the font as indicated.
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| 18 |
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| 19 | This changes the semantics of the eight-bit character tables subtly.
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| 20 | The four character tables are now:
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| 21 |
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| 22 | =============== =============================== ================
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| 23 | Map symbol Map name Escape code (G0)
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| 24 | =============== =============================== ================
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| 25 | LAT1_MAP Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) ESC ( B
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| 26 | GRAF_MAP DEC VT100 pseudographics ESC ( 0
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| 27 | IBMPC_MAP IBM code page 437 ESC ( U
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| 28 | USER_MAP User defined ESC ( K
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| 29 | =============== =============================== ================
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| 30 |
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| 31 | In particular, ESC ( U is no longer "straight to font", since the font
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| 32 | might be completely different than the IBM character set. This
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| 33 | permits for example the use of block graphics even with a Latin-1 font
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| 34 | loaded.
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| 35 |
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| 36 | Note that although these codes are similar to ISO 2022, neither the
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| 37 | codes nor their uses match ISO 2022; Linux has two 8-bit codes (G0 and
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| 38 | G1), whereas ISO 2022 has four 7-bit codes (G0-G3).
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| 39 |
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| 40 | In accordance with the Unicode standard/ISO 10646 the range U+F000 to
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| 41 | U+F8FF has been reserved for OS-wide allocation (the Unicode Standard
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| 42 | refers to this as a "Corporate Zone", since this is inaccurate for
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| 43 | Linux we call it the "Linux Zone"). U+F000 was picked as the starting
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| 44 | point since it lets the direct-mapping area start on a large power of
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| 45 | two (in case 1024- or 2048-character fonts ever become necessary).
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| 46 | This leaves U+E000 to U+EFFF as End User Zone.
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| 47 |
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| 48 | [v1.2]: The Unicodes range from U+F000 and up to U+F7FF have been
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| 49 | hard-coded to map directly to the loaded font, bypassing the
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| 50 | translation table. The user-defined map now defaults to U+F000 to
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| 51 | U+F0FF, emulating the previous behaviour. In practice, this range
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| 52 | might be shorter; for example, vgacon can only handle 256-character
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| 53 | (U+F000..U+F0FF) or 512-character (U+F000..U+F1FF) fonts.
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| 54 |
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| 55 |
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| 56 | Actual characters assigned in the Linux Zone
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| 57 | --------------------------------------------
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| 58 |
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| 59 | In addition, the following characters not present in Unicode 1.1.4
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| 60 | have been defined; these are used by the DEC VT graphics map. [v1.2]
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| 61 | THIS USE IS OBSOLETE AND SHOULD NO LONGER BE USED; PLEASE SEE BELOW.
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| 62 |
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| 63 | ====== ======================================
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| 64 | U+F800 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 1
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| 65 | U+F801 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 3
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| 66 | U+F803 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 7
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| 67 | U+F804 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 9
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| 68 | ====== ======================================
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| 69 |
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| 70 | The DEC VT220 uses a 6x10 character matrix, and these characters form
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| 71 | a smooth progression in the DEC VT graphics character set. I have
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| 72 | omitted the scan 5 line, since it is also used as a block-graphics
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| 73 | character, and hence has been coded as U+2500 FORMS LIGHT HORIZONTAL.
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| 74 |
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| 75 | [v1.3]: These characters have been officially added to Unicode 3.2.0;
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| 76 | they are added at U+23BA, U+23BB, U+23BC, U+23BD. Linux now uses the
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| 77 | new values.
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| 78 |
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| 79 | [v1.2]: The following characters have been added to represent common
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| 80 | keyboard symbols that are unlikely to ever be added to Unicode proper
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| 81 | since they are horribly vendor-specific. This, of course, is an
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| 82 | excellent example of horrible design.
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| 83 |
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| 84 | ====== ======================================
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| 85 | U+F810 KEYBOARD SYMBOL FLYING FLAG
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| 86 | U+F811 KEYBOARD SYMBOL PULLDOWN MENU
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| 87 | U+F812 KEYBOARD SYMBOL OPEN APPLE
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| 88 | U+F813 KEYBOARD SYMBOL SOLID APPLE
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| 89 | ====== ======================================
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| 90 |
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| 91 | Klingon language support
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| 92 | ------------------------
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| 93 |
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| 94 | In 1996, Linux was the first operating system in the world to add
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| 95 | support for the artificial language Klingon, created by Marc Okrand
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| 96 | for the "Star Trek" television series. This encoding was later
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| 97 | adopted by the ConScript Unicode Registry and proposed (but ultimately
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| 98 | rejected) for inclusion in Unicode Plane 1. Thus, it remains as a
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| 99 | Linux/CSUR private assignment in the Linux Zone.
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| 100 |
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| 101 | This encoding has been endorsed by the Klingon Language Institute.
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| 102 | For more information, contact them at:
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| 103 |
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| 104 | http://www.kli.org/
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| 105 |
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| 106 | Since the characters in the beginning of the Linux CZ have been more
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| 107 | of the dingbats/symbols/forms type and this is a language, I have
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| 108 | located it at the end, on a 16-cell boundary in keeping with standard
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| 109 | Unicode practice.
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| 110 |
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| 111 | .. note::
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| 112 |
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| 113 | This range is now officially managed by the ConScript Unicode
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| 114 | Registry. The normative reference is at:
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| 115 |
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| 116 | https://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html
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| 117 |
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| 118 | Klingon has an alphabet of 26 characters, a positional numeric writing
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| 119 | system with 10 digits, and is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
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| 120 |
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| 121 | Several glyph forms for the Klingon alphabet have been proposed.
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| 122 | However, since the set of symbols appear to be consistent throughout,
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| 123 | with only the actual shapes being different, in keeping with standard
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| 124 | Unicode practice these differences are considered font variants.
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| 125 |
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| 126 | ====== =======================================================
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| 127 | U+F8D0 KLINGON LETTER A
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| 128 | U+F8D1 KLINGON LETTER B
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| 129 | U+F8D2 KLINGON LETTER CH
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| 130 | U+F8D3 KLINGON LETTER D
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| 131 | U+F8D4 KLINGON LETTER E
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| 132 | U+F8D5 KLINGON LETTER GH
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| 133 | U+F8D6 KLINGON LETTER H
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| 134 | U+F8D7 KLINGON LETTER I
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| 135 | U+F8D8 KLINGON LETTER J
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| 136 | U+F8D9 KLINGON LETTER L
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| 137 | U+F8DA KLINGON LETTER M
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| 138 | U+F8DB KLINGON LETTER N
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| 139 | U+F8DC KLINGON LETTER NG
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| 140 | U+F8DD KLINGON LETTER O
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| 141 | U+F8DE KLINGON LETTER P
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| 142 | U+F8DF KLINGON LETTER Q
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| 143 | - Written <q> in standard Okrand Latin transliteration
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| 144 | U+F8E0 KLINGON LETTER QH
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| 145 | - Written <Q> in standard Okrand Latin transliteration
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| 146 | U+F8E1 KLINGON LETTER R
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| 147 | U+F8E2 KLINGON LETTER S
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| 148 | U+F8E3 KLINGON LETTER T
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| 149 | U+F8E4 KLINGON LETTER TLH
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| 150 | U+F8E5 KLINGON LETTER U
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| 151 | U+F8E6 KLINGON LETTER V
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| 152 | U+F8E7 KLINGON LETTER W
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| 153 | U+F8E8 KLINGON LETTER Y
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| 154 | U+F8E9 KLINGON LETTER GLOTTAL STOP
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| 155 |
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| 156 | U+F8F0 KLINGON DIGIT ZERO
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| 157 | U+F8F1 KLINGON DIGIT ONE
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| 158 | U+F8F2 KLINGON DIGIT TWO
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| 159 | U+F8F3 KLINGON DIGIT THREE
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| 160 | U+F8F4 KLINGON DIGIT FOUR
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| 161 | U+F8F5 KLINGON DIGIT FIVE
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| 162 | U+F8F6 KLINGON DIGIT SIX
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| 163 | U+F8F7 KLINGON DIGIT SEVEN
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| 164 | U+F8F8 KLINGON DIGIT EIGHT
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| 165 | U+F8F9 KLINGON DIGIT NINE
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| 166 |
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| 167 | U+F8FD KLINGON COMMA
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| 168 | U+F8FE KLINGON FULL STOP
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| 169 | U+F8FF KLINGON SYMBOL FOR EMPIRE
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| 170 | ====== =======================================================
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| 171 |
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| 172 | Other Fictional and Artificial Scripts
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| 173 | --------------------------------------
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| 174 |
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| 175 | Since the assignment of the Klingon Linux Unicode block, a registry of
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| 176 | fictional and artificial scripts has been established by John Cowan
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| 177 | <[email protected]> and Michael Everson <[email protected]>.
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| 178 | The ConScript Unicode Registry is accessible at:
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| 179 |
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| 180 | https://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/
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| 181 |
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| 182 | The ranges used fall at the low end of the End User Zone and can hence
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| 183 | not be normatively assigned, but it is recommended that people who
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| 184 | wish to encode fictional scripts use these codes, in the interest of
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| 185 | interoperability. For Klingon, CSUR has adopted the Linux encoding.
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| 186 | The CSUR people are driving adding Tengwar and Cirth into Unicode
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| 187 | Plane 1; the addition of Klingon to Unicode Plane 1 has been rejected
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| 188 | and so the above encoding remains official.
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