Unicode map revisited: Proposed monster accents (long)
Ray Chason
symbols and monsters. I now have most of this working. It runs on
TTY systems, both Unix and Win32, and on the X11, Qt, and Win32 tiled
ports. (Support is very limited on Qt, not because there's anything
wrong with Qt, but because the Qt port uses only tiles except on the
Rogue level.) I would now like to present how the monster accents
may be implemented.
Monster accents are supported on six levels, configured through a new
mon_accents option as follows:
Level 0: No accents; monsters display as in unmodified Nethack.
Level 1: Accents present in the default PC character set.
Level 2: Accents present in ISO-8859-1, identical to Unicode
characters U+00A0 through U+00FF; includes all of
Level 1.
Level 3: Accents present in the Unicode Latin Extended A block,
U+0100 through U+017F; plus Level 2.
Level 4: Accents present in the Unicode Latin Extended B block,
U+0180 through U+024F; plus Level 3.
Level 5: Accents present in the Unicode Latin Extended Additional
block, U+1E00 through U+1EFF; plus Level 4.
This scheme may need some refinement: I have encountered at least one
font that is fully populated through U+017F and in the U+1E00-1EFF
block, but has few glyphs in U+0180-024F, and hence can use only
Level 3.
Users of MSDOS and Windows (and OS/2?) can use Level 1 without any
special configuration. This offers variations on a, c, e, i, n, o, u,
y, A, C, E, N, O, and U.
Level 2 is special. When the accent level is exactly 2, it is assumed
that the user is using code page 850 (on MSDOS, Windows, and OS/2) or
the lat1-16 font (on the Linux console), and the map symbols are
modified to avoid characters not present in those fonts. This allows
accent level 2 to function even when Unicode is not available.
One problem that faces this effort is that the letters that we need are
not necessarily the letters we have. No monster appears as I, and the
letters l, z, Q, U, and X stand for only one monster each; but we have
lots of accented Is and Us. On the other hand, there are not enough
distinct symbols to distinguish all monsters of types d, f, v, D, F, M,
and Z.
A future Level 6 may assume support for combining glyphs, which would
make it possible to distinguish all monsters (maybe even non-alphabetic
ones) and mark them in a more regular and consistent fashion than this
bit of ad-hockery permits.
Here are the monsters and the proposed Unicode glyphs:
Letter: a
Assignments: Level 1
giant ant U+0061 a
killer bee U+00E0 à
soldier ant U+00E1 á
fire ant U+00E2 â
giant beetle U+00E3 ã
queen bee U+00E4 ä
Notes:
Circumflex means "fire" when available and appropriate.
Letter: b
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
acid blob U+0062 b U+0062
quivering blob U+0062 b U+1E07 b-underline
gelatinous cube U+0180 b-stroke U+0180 b-stroke
Notes:
The gelatinous cube is distinguished first for being the most powerful
of this group.
U+0183 ("Latin small letter B with topbar") is difficult to distinguish
from its upper-case form (U+0182) and is skipped.
Letter: c
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
chickatrice U+0063 c U+0063 c
cockatrice U+0063 c U+0107 c-acute
pyrolisk U+00E7 ç U+00E7 ç
Notes:
The pyrolisk is more distinct from the chickatrice and cockatrice than
those two monsters are from each other, and thus is distinguished at
level 1.
Letter: d
Assignments: Level 3 Level 5
jackal U+0064 d U+0064 d
fox U+0064 d U+0064 d
coyote U+0064 d U+0064 d
werejackal U+010F d-caron U+010F d-caron
little dog U+0064 d U+0064 d
dog U+0064 d U+1E0D d-underdot
large dog U+0064 d U+1E0F d-underline
dingo U+0064 d U+0064 d
wolf U+0064 d U+1E11 d-cedilla
werewolf U+010F d-caron U+010F d-caron
warg U+0064 d U+1E13 d-circum-below
winter wolf cub U+0111 d-stroke U+0111 d-stroke
winter wolf U+0111 d-stroke U+0111 d-stroke
hell hound pup U+0111 d-stroke U+1E0B d-overdot
hell hound U+0111 d-stroke U+1E0B d-overdot
Cerberus U+0111 d-stroke U+1E0B d-overdot
Notes:
There are not enough d's to go around, even at level 5. At level 3,
the werecanines are distinguished by a caron, and the canines with
breath weapons by a stroke. (The wererat is likewise r-caron at level
3.) At level 5, the weaker canines remain d and the werecanines as
d-caron. The overdot replaces the stroke to distinguish fire-breath
from frost-breath. Progression from plain to underdot to underline
distinguishes the three dogs; unfortunately, nothing similar is
available for cats. The coyote, wolf, and warg are the same color,
and so the wolf and warg get their own symbols.
Cerberus does not appear in an unmodified game.
Letter: e
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
floating eye U+0065 e U+0065 e
gas spore U+00E8 e U+00E8 è
freezing sphere U+00E9 e U+00E9 é
flaming sphere U+00EA e U+00EA ê
shocking sphere U+00EB e U+00EB ë
beholder U+00EB e U+0113 e-macron
Notes:
Circumflex means "fire" when available and appropriate.
The beholder does not appear in an unmodified game, and so is not
granted a distinct symbol until level 3 (since the others exhaust
the available level 1 symbols). That may have to change when and if
the beholder ever comes to vanilla Nethack.
Letter: f
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
kitten U+0066 f U+0066 f
housecat U+0066 f U+0066 f
large cat U+0066 f U+0066 f
jaguar U+0066 f U+1E1F f-overdot
lynx U+0066 f U+1E1F f-overdot
panther U+0192 f-hook U+0192 f-hook
tiger U+0192 f-hook U+0192 f-hook
Notes:
There are not enough f's to go around; indeed there are few f's at all.
U+0192 actually exists in the IBM character set, but trying to display
it at level 1 is more trouble than it's worth.
Priority is given to distinguishing the more powerful felines.
Letter: g
Assignments: Level 3
gremlin U+0067 g
gargoyle U+011D g-circumflex
winged gargoyle U+011F g-breve
Notes:
None.
Letter: h
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
hobbit U+0068 h U+0068 h U+0068 h
dwarf U+0068 h U+0068 h U+1E29 h-cedilla
bugbear U+0068 h U+0195 hv ligat U+0195 hv ligat
dwarf lord U+0127 h-stroke U+0127 h-stroke U+0127 h-stroke
dwarf king U+0127 h-stroke U+0127 h-stroke U+1E27 h-diares
mind flayer U+0125 h-circum U+0125 h-circum U+0125 h-circum
master mind flayer U+0125 h-circum U+021F h-caron U+021F h-caron
Notes:
Without accents, the dwarf king and the mind flayers are displayed
alike; distinguishing them is a high priority in this group. At
level 4, the master mind flayer's circumflex is turned over to
form a caron, and the bugbear gets a tail (U+0195 is officially
"Latin small letter HV"). At level 5, all h's are distinct. The
dwarf gets a pickaxe and the dwarf king gets a crown.
Letter: i
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
homunculus U+0069 i U+0069 i
imp U+00EC ì U+00EC ì
manes U+00ED í U+00ED í
lemure U+00ED í U+0129 i-tilde
quasit U+00EE î U+00EE î
tengu U+00EF ï U+00EF ï
Notes:
The manes and the lemure are essentially the same monster, and so are
displayed alike until additional symbols become available at level 3.
Letter: j
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4
blue jelly U+006A j U+006A j
spotted jelly U+006A j U+01F0 j-caron
ochre jelly U+0135 j-circum U+0135 j-circum
Notes:
The ochre jelly is distinguished first, at level 3, because of its
swallowing attack.
Letter: k
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4
kobold U+006B k U+006B k
large kobold U+006B k U+0199 k-hook
kobold lord U+006B k U+01E9 k-caron
kobold shaman U+0137 k-cedilla U+0137 k-cedilla
Notes:
The kobold shaman is distinguished first, at level 3, because of its
spellcasting abilities.
Letter: m
Assignments: Level 5
small mimic U+006D m
large mimic U+1E3F m-acute
giant mimic U+1E41 m-overdot
Notes:
None.
Letter: n
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
wood nymph U+006E n U+006E n
water nymph U+00F1 ñ U+00F1 ñ
mountain nymph U+006E n U+0148 n-caron
Notes:
The tilde is assigned to the water nymph to suggest waves.
Letter: o
Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
goblin U+006F o U+006F o
hobgoblin U+00F2 ò U+00F2 ò
orc U+006F o U+006F o
hill orc U+00F3 ó U+00F3 ó
Mordor orc U+00F4 ô U+00F4 ô
Uruk-hai U+00F4 ô U+00F8 ø
orc shaman U+00F5 õ U+00F5 õ
orc-captain U+00F6 ö U+00F6 ö
Notes:
The plain "orc" exists only to form corpses of orc zombies and mummies,
and does not normally appear in the game. No distinct symbol is
assigned to it. The Mordor orc and Uruk-hai, though rivals in Tolkien's
work, are not that different for game purposes and get the same symbol
at level 1.
Letter: p
Assignments: Level 4
rock piercer U+0070 p
iron piercer U+01A5 p-hook
glass piercer U+01BF lowercase wynn
Notes:
Wynn (U+01BF) is a rune and only vaguely looks like a p; it isn't even
pronounced as p, but as w. Perhaps it should be replaced at level 5.
Letter: r
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4
sewer rat U+0072 r U+0072 r
giant rat U+0072 r U+0213 r-inverted-breve
rabid rat U+0072 r U+0211 r-double-grave
wererat U+0159 r-caron U+0159 r-caron
rock mole U+0155 r-acute U+0155 r-acute
woodchuck U+0157 r-cedilla U+0157 r-cedilla
Notes:
Caron indicates the wererat, as it does the werejackal and werewolf.
Letter: s
Assignments: Level 3
cave spider U+0073 s
centipede U+015B s-acute
giant spider U+015D s-circumflex
scorpion U+015F s-cedilla
Scorpius U+0161 s-caron
Notes:
The scorpion has a cedilla for a tail.
Letter: t
Assignments: Level 3
lurker above U+0165 t-caron
trapper U+0074 t
Notes:
The lurker above has a caron above.
Letter: u
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
white unicorn U+00FA ú U+00FA ú
gray unicorn U+0075 u U+016F u-ring
black unicorn U+00F9 ù U+00F9 ù
pony U+0075 u U+0075 u
horse U+00FB û U+00FB û
warhorse U+00FC ü U+00FC ü
Notes:
The white unicorn's horn points right, the gray unicorn's points
forward, and the black unicorn's points left.
Letter: v
Assignments: Level 5
fog cloud U+0076 v
dust vortex U+0076 v
ice vortex U+1E7D v-tilde
energy vortex U+1E7D v-tilde
steam vortex U+1E7F v-underdot
fire vortex U+1E7F v-underdot
Notes:
There are not enough v's to go around, nor is there a circumflex to
mean "fire" in this case.
Letter: w
Assignments: Level 3 Level 5
baby long worm U+0077 w U+0077 w
baby purple worm U+0077 w U+1E85 w-diaresis
long worm U+0077 w U+1E83 w-acute
purple worm U+0175 w-circum U+0175 w-circum
Notes:
The purple worm is the only w that can swallow, and is thus distin-
guished first.
Letter: x
Assignments: Level 5
grid bug U+0078 x
xan U+1E8B x-dot-above
Notes:
The xan has a dot for its piercing proboscis.
Letter: y
Assignments: Level 1
yellow light U+0079 y
black light U+00FF ÿ
Notes:
None.
Letter: A
Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
couatl U+0041 A U+0041 A
Aleax U+0041 A U+00C3 Ã
Angel U+00C5 Å U+00C5 Å
ki-rin U+00C4 Ä U+00C1 Á
Archon U+00C4 Ä U+00C4 Ä
Notes:
The Angel gets a halo.
The ki-rin and the Aleax are distinguished at level 1 because they have
the same color.
Letter: B
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
bat U+0042 B U+0042 B
giant bat U+0042 B U+1E02 B-dot-above
raven U+0042 B U+1E04 B-dot-below
vampire bat U+0181 B-hook U+0181 B-hook
Notes:
U+0182 "Latin capital letter B with stroke" is missing its upper loop;
it looks too much like a small b and is skipped.
Letter: C
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3
plains centaur U+0043 C U+0043 C
forest centaur U+0043 C U+0108 C-circumflex
mountain centaur U+00C7 Ç U+00C7 Ç
Notes:
None.
Letter: D
Assignments: Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
baby gray dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby silver dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby shimm. dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby red dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby white dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby orange dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby black dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby blue dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby green dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
baby yellow dragon U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D U+0044 D
gray dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð
silver dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E0A D-dot-above
shimmering dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð
red dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E0C D-dot-below
white dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E0E D-line-below
orange dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E10 D-cedilla
black dragon U+00D0 Ð U+010E D-caron U+010E D-caron U+010E D-caron
blue dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E12 D-circum-below
green dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E0E D-caron
yellow dragon U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+00D0 Ð U+1E12 D-circum-below
Chromatic Dragon U+00D0 Ð U+010E D-caron U+018A D-hook U+018A D-hook
Ixoth U+00D0 Ð U+010E D-caron U+018A D-hook U+018A D-hook
Notes:
There are not enough Ds to go around. At level 2, Ð (eth) distinguishes
adults from juveniles. At level 3, the black dragon gets a new symbol
to distinguish it from the blue dragon, because black draws as blue in
some versions. At level 4, the nemeses get their own symbol. At level
5, most of the adults now have distinct symbols.
U+0110 ("Latin capital letter D with stroke") and U+0189 ("Latin capital
letter African D") are the same glyph as eth in many fonts (their
lowercase forms are different). They are skipped.
Letter: E
Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
stalker U+0045 E U+0045 E
air elemental U+00C9 É U+00C9 É
fire elemental U+0045 E U+00C8 È
earth elemental U+0045 E U+00CA Ê
water elemental U+0045 E U+00CB Ë
Notes:
The air elemental, dangerous for its engulfing attack, is distinguished
first.
Letter: F
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
lichen U+0046 F U+0046 F
brown mold U+0046 F U+0046 F
yellow mold U+0046 F U+1E1E F-overdot
green mold U+0191 F-hook U+0191 F-hook
red mold U+0046 F U+1E1E F-overdot
shrieker U+0046 F U+0046 F
violet fungus U+0191 F-hook U+0191 F-hook
Notes:
There are not enough Fs to go around. Priority at level 4 is given to
distinguishing Fs of like colors.
Letter: G
Assignments: Level 3
gnome U+0047 G
gnome lord U+011E G-breve
gnomish wizard U+0122 G-cedilla
gnome king U+011C G-circumflex
Notes:
The gnome lord and gnome king have crowns.
Letter: H
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
giant U+0048 H U+0048 H U+0048 H
stone giant U+0048 H U+0048 H U+0048 H
hill giant U+0048 H U+021E H-caron U+021E H-caron
fire giant U+0124 H-circum U+0124 H-circum U+0124 H-circum
frost giant U+0048 H U+01F6 Hv-ligat U+01F6 Hv-ligat
storm giant U+0048 H U+01F6 Hv-ligat U+1E2A H-breve-below
ettin U+0048 H U+021E H-caron U+1E28 H-cedilla
titan U+0126 H-overbar U+0126 H-overbar U+0126 H-overbar
minotaur U+0126 H-overbar U+0126 H-overbar U+1E24 H-underdot
Cyclops U+0124 H-circum U+0124 H-circum U+1E22 H-overdot
Lord Surtur U+0124 H-circum U+0124 H-circum U+1E26 H-diaresis
Notes:
The plain "giant" exists only to create corpses of giant mummies and
giant zombies; it will not normally appear and does not need a
separate symbol.
The titan is distinguished from the two nemeses, who are not distin-
guished from one another before level 5 because they do not normally
appear in the same game.
Cyclops at level 5 has a single eye.
Letter: J
Assignments: Level 3
jabberwock U+004A J
vorpal jabberwock U+0134 J-circumflex
Notes:
The vorpal jabberwock does not appear in an unmodified game.
Letter: K
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4
Keystone Kop U+0138 kra U+0138 kra
Kop Sergeant U+004B K U+004B K
Kop Lieutenant U+0136 K-cedilla U+0136 K-cedilla
Kop Kaptain U+0136 K-cedilla U+01E8 K-caron
Notes:
Kra (U+0138) looks like a somewhat smaller uppercase K.
Letter: L
Assignments: Level 3
lich U+004C L
demilich U+0139 L-acute
master lich U+013B L-cedilla
arch-lich U+013D L-caron
Notes:
None.
Letter: M
Assignments: Level 5
kobold mummy U+004D M
gnome mummy U+004D M
orc mummy U+1E40 M-overdot
dwarf mummy U+1E40 M-overdot
elf mummy U+1E42 M-underdot
human mummy U+1E42 M-underdot
ettin mummy U+1E3E M-acute
giant mummy U+1E3E M-acute
Notes:
There are not enough Ms to go around. The accents are assigned to
distinguish Ms of the same color.
Letter: N
Assignments: Level 1 Level 3 Level 4
red naga hatchling U+004E N U+0145 N-cedilla U+0145 N-cedilla
black naga hatchling U+004E N U+004E N U+004E N
golden naga hatchling U+004E N U+014A Eng U+014A Eng
guardian naga hatchling U+004E N U+004E N U+019D N-left-hook
red naga U+00D1 Ñ U+0143 N-acute U+0143 N-acute
black naga U+00D1 Ñ U+00D1 Ñ U+00D1 Ñ
golden naga U+00D1 Ñ U+0147 N-caron U+0147 N-caron
guardian naga U+00D1 Ñ U+00D1 Ñ U+01F8 N-grave
Notes:
Because the adults have breath weapons, and the same colors as the
juveniles, priority is given to distinguishing them from the juveniles.
At all levels, the adults have diacritics above the N, and the juveniles
have either no diacritic or a diacritic below.
"Eng" looks like an N with a hook appended to the right side. In some
fonts, it may be an enlarged lowercase n with that same hook. It may
be a good idea to skip Eng, and go with N-underline (U+1E48) at level 5.
Letter: O
Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
ogre U+004F O U+004F O
ogre lord U+004F O U+00D3 Ó
ogre king U+00D6 Ö U+00D6 Ö
Notes:
None.
Letter: P
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
gray ooze U+0050 P U+0050 P
brown pudding U+0050 P U+1E54 P-acute
black pudding U+01A4 P-hook U+01A4 P-hook
green slime U+01F7 Wynn U+01F7 Wynn
Notes:
Wynn (U+01F7), like the lowercase form (U+01BF), isn't really a P but
a rune pronounced as W. It could be skipped, at the cost of one less
distinct symbol at level 4.
Letter: R
Assignments: Level 3
rust monster U+0052 R
disenchanter U+0154 R-acute
Notes:
None.
Letter: S
Assignments: Level 3 Level 5
garter snake U+0053 S U+0053 S
snake U+015A S-acute U+015A S-acute
water moccasin U+015A S-acute U+1E60 S-overdot
pit viper U+015E S-cedilla U+015E S-cedilla
python U+0160 S-caron U+0160 S-caron
cobra U+015C S-circum U+015C S-circum
Notes:
The two characters at level 4 are U+01A7 (reversed S) and U+0218 (S
with comma below). The turned S could be used, but S with comma below
looks too much like S-cedilla.
Letter: T
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4
troll U+0054 T U+0054 T
ice troll U+0162 T-cedilla U+01AC T-hook
rock troll U+0162 T-cedilla U+0162 T-cedilla
water troll U+0164 T-caron U+0164 T-caron
Olog-hai U+0166 T-stroke U+0166 T-stroke
Notes:
None.
Letter: V
Assignments: Level 4 Level 5
vampire U+0056 V U+0056 V
vampire lord U+0056 V U+1E7C V-tilde
vampire mage U+0056 V U+1E7E V-underdot
Vlad the Impaler U+0194 Capital Gamma U+0194 Capital Gamma
Notes:
"Capital Gamma" (U+0194) is a Latin letter that looks like a V with a
loop underneath, not a Greek letter.
Vampire mages do not appear in unmodified games.
Letter: W
Assignments: Level 3 Level 5
barrow wight U+0057 W U+0057 W
wraith U+0174 W-circum U+1E84 W-diaresis
Nazgul U+0174 W-circum U+0174 W-circum
Notes:
Nazgul is written Nazgûl in Tolkien's writings, and so gets the
circumflex.
Letter: Y
Assignments: Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
monkey U+0059 Y U+0059 Y U+0059 Y
ape U+0059 Y U+0059 Y U+01B3 Y-hook
owlbear U+00DD Ý U+00DD Ý U+00DD Ý
yeti U+00DD Ý U+0178 Y-diares U+0178 Y-diaresis
carnivorous ape U+00DD Ý U+0176 Y-circum U+0176 Y-circumflex
sasquatch U+00DD Ý U+0176 Y-circum U+0232 Y-macron
Notes:
At level 2, priority is given to distinguising the ape from the owlbear,
which are both brown; and the sasquatch from the monkey, which are both
gray.
Letter: Z
Assignments: Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
kobold zombie U+005A Z U+005A Z U+005A Z
gnome zombie U+017B Z-overdot U+01B5 Z-stroke U+01B5 Z-stroke
orc zombie U+005A Z U+005A Z U+005A Z
dwarf zombie U+005A Z U+005A Z U+1E92 Z-underdot
elf zombie U+005A Z U+005A Z U+1E94 Z-underbar
human zombie U+017B Z-overdot U+017B Z-overdot U+017B Z-overdot
ettin zombie U+0179 Z-acute U+0179 Z-acute U+0179 Z-acute
giant zombie U+0179 Z-acute U+0179 Z-acute U+1E90 Z-circumflex
ghoul U+005A Z U+0224 Z-hook-below U+0224 Z-hook-below
skeleton U+017D Z-caron U+017D Z-caron U+017D Z-caron
Notes:
There is one less Z than we need. The orc and kobold zombies are not
distinguished.
Priority is given to distinguishing Zs of like colors.
--
--------------===============<[ Ray Chason ]>===============--------------
PGP public key at http://www.smart.net/~rchason/pubkey.asc
Delenda est Windoze
Semi-Psychic Nathan
-snip-
> Circumflex means "fire" when available and appropriate.
-snip-
> Letter: E
> Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
> stalker U+0045 E U+0045 E
> air elemental U+00C9 … U+00C9 …
> fire elemental U+0045 E U+00C8 »
> earth elemental U+0045 E U+00CA
> water elemental U+0045 E U+00CB À
> Notes:
> The air elemental, dangerous for its engulfing attack, is distinguished
> first.
Shouldn't the fire elemental get the circumflex?
Sam Dennis
> Ray Chason wrote:
[an article which was, like many others, mysteriously dropped before reaching
me]
> -snip-
>> Circumflex means "fire" when available and appropriate.
> -snip-
>> Letter: E
>> Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
>> stalker U+0045 E U+0045 E
>> air elemental U+00C9 É U+00C9 É
>> fire elemental U+0045 E U+00C8 È
>> earth elemental U+0045 E U+00CA Ê
>> water elemental U+0045 E U+00CB Ë
All of those on the right should be supported in level 1, if I understand the
system correctly. If you really want to make air elementals stand out, maybe
you should try U+00C6 (Æ).
You could also do some more interesting things in level 2, as combining chars
are permitted, for example: (just the codes, I haven't much hope of producing
these on my terminal)
stalker U+00CB
air elemental U+00C6
fire elemental U+00CA
earth elemental U+0045 U+0331
water elemental U+0045 U+0303
Good luck on getting the last two to show, though!
--
++acr@,ka"
Ray Chason
>Semi-Psychic Nathan wrote:
>> Ray Chason wrote:
>
>[an article which was, like many others, mysteriously dropped before reaching
>me]
>
>> -snip-
>>> Circumflex means "fire" when available and appropriate.
>> -snip-
>>> Letter: E
>>> Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
>>> stalker U+0045 E U+0045 E
>>> air elemental U+00C9 É U+00C9 É
>>> fire elemental U+0045 E U+00C8 È
>>> earth elemental U+0045 E U+00CA Ê
>>> water elemental U+0045 E U+00CB Ë
Per Nathan (good catch!) I repropose this block as:
Letter: E
Assignments: Level 1 Level 2
stalker U+0045 E U+0045 E
air elemental U+00C9 É U+00C9 É
fire elemental U+0045 E U+00CA Ê
earth elemental U+0045 E U+00C8 È
water elemental U+0045 E U+00CB Ë
>All of those on the right should be supported in level 1, if I understand the
>system correctly. If you really want to make air elementals stand out, maybe
>you should try U+00C6 (Æ).
You misunderstand me. That's understandable if, as you say, the article
was lost; but it made it to Google.
The levels here are a proposed setting in a patched Nethack and have
nothing to do with ISO-10646-1 and 2. Rather, they use increasingly
large subsets of the Latin fonts:
Level 0: no accents, default letters
Level 1: through U+00FF and common with IBM graphics
Level 2: through U+00FF, all characters
Level 3: through U+017F
Level 4: through U+024F
Level 5: all of level 4, plus the U+1E00-1EFF block; that is,
all of the Latin characters.
Perhaps a future level 6 could support the combining characters. That
would require some further hacking, as well as an output device that
knows what to do with them.
The settings are needed because it's difficult to know what characters
are available, and there's no portable way to query the font.
I'd rather not use Æ, because it's unclear whether it's an A-class or
E-class monster.