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Q.: a decorated M glyph?

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tlvp

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May 8, 2017, 12:24:07 AM5/8/17
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The Lufthansa Miles & More web site uses a curiously decorated upper case M
as abbreviation for its frequent flier miles "currency". In their HTML this
seems to be presented by a simple upper case M, but what the glyph actually
looks like once a browser presents it is more like a blend of ┤ V and ├ ,
in the same fashion as one might take M proper to be a blend of | V and | .
(Sorry, ASCII won't let me get much closer than that dreadful description,
or the ASCII graphic notion, ┤V├ versus |V| .)

My question though: is there a Unicode entry for such a decorated M ? or an
HTML entity name for it?

Thanks! Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

Stanimir Stamenkov

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May 8, 2017, 2:31:20 AM5/8/17
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Mon, 8 May 2017 00:24:07 -0400, /tlvp/:

> The Lufthansa Miles & More web site uses a curiously decorated
> upper case M as abbreviation for its frequent flier miles
> "currency". In their HTML this seems to be presented by a simple
> upper case M, but what the glyph actually looks like once a
> browser presents it is more like a blend of ┤ V and ├ , in the
> same fashion as one might take M proper to be a blend of | V and | .
> (Sorry, ASCII won't let me get much closer than that dreadful
> description, or the ASCII graphic notion, ┤V├ versus |V| .)
>
> My question though: is there a Unicode entry for such a decorated
> M ? or an HTML entity name for it?

Could you give sample of the HTML source you're observing? I've
been able to see just a single instance of the 'M' you're describing:

https://www.miles-and-more.com/mediapool/png/73/media_2034028973.png

It's a PNG image found on:

http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/homepage?nodeid=2255083&l=en&cid=18002

--
Stanimir

Stanimir Stamenkov

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May 8, 2017, 2:52:05 AM5/8/17
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Mon, 8 May 2017 09:31:24 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/:
I haven't found single Unicode to represent it, but the following
appears to reproduce it for me:

̵M̵

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_Diacritical_Marks

--
Stanimir

Stanimir Stamenkov

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May 8, 2017, 3:25:50 AM5/8/17
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Mon, 8 May 2017 09:52:09 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/:
If you're using Unicode capable reader you should see it also here:

̵M̵

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_Diacritical_Marks

--
Stanimir

Stanimir Stamenkov

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May 8, 2017, 3:29:56 AM5/8/17
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Mon, 8 May 2017 10:25:53 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/:
> Mon, 8 May 2017 09:52:09 +0300, /Stanimir Stamenkov/:
>
>> I haven't found single Unicode to represent it, but the following
>> appears to reproduce it for me:
>>
>> ̵M̵
>
> If you're using Unicode capable reader you should see it also here:
>
> ̵M̵

Doesn't appear to play nice with monospace font.

--
Stanimir

Stan Brown

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May 8, 2017, 8:36:58 PM5/8/17
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On Mon, 8 May 2017 00:24:07 -0400, tlvp wrote:
>
> The Lufthansa Miles & More web site uses a curiously decorated upper case M
> as abbreviation for its frequent flier miles "currency". In their HTML this
> seems to be presented by a simple upper case M, but what the glyph actually
> looks like once a browser presents it is more like a blend of Ś V and + ,
> in the same fashion as one might take M proper to be a blend of | V and | .
> (Sorry, ASCII won't let me get much closer than that dreadful description,
> or the ASCII graphic notion, ŚV+ versus |V| .)
>
> My question though: is there a Unicode entry for such a decorated M ? or an
> HTML entity name for it?
>
> Thanks! Cheers, -- tlvp

If only there were some way for us to see what you're talking
about....

Such as -- and I know this is crazy, but still I'll risk it -- such
as the URL?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://BrownMath.com/
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2.1 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
Why We Won't Help You: http://preview.tinyurl.com/WhyWont

tlvp

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May 8, 2017, 10:23:10 PM5/8/17
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On Mon, 8 May 2017 09:31:24 +0300, Stanimir Stamenkov wrote:

> Mon, 8 May 2017 00:24:07 -0400, /tlvp/:
>
>> The Lufthansa Miles & More web site uses a curiously decorated
>> upper case M ... the ASCII graphic notion, ┤V├ versus |V| ...
>>
>> My question though: is there a Unicode entry for such ... ?
>
> Could you give sample of the HTML source you're observing? I've
> been able to see just a single instance of the 'M' you're describing:
>
> https://www.miles-and-more.com/mediapool/png/73/media_2034028973.png

Your png captures that decorated "mam.currency" M perfectly.

> It's a PNG image found on:
>
> http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/homepage?nodeid=2255083&l=en&cid=18002

Actually, I can't find it when I try to open that page. On the other hand,
it *is* a (text) character in the award miles column of the Transactions
table that one gets to see once logged in to one's own M&M account.

Sample TD entry, displayed as "366M" (with that decorated M, actually), and
arising from local HTML fragment

: 366<span class="mam-currency-symbol" aria-hidden="true">M</span>

where, inspecting the element, in FF, the class "mam-currency-symbol"
appears to involve

: https://www.miles-and-more.com/layout/r172-28/static/mam/res/fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2

and

: @font-face {
: font-family: "mam-currency-symbol";
: font-style: normal;
: font-weight: 400;
: src: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.eot?#iefix")
: format("embedded-opentype"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2") format("woff2"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff") format("woff"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.ttf") format("truetype"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.svg#DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman")
: format("svg");
: }

What more is hidden here, that I am missing?

tlvp

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May 8, 2017, 10:32:08 PM5/8/17
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On Mon, 8 May 2017 09:52:09 +0300, Stanimir Stamenkov wrote:

> &#x335;M&#x335;

Bravo! That captures it very well for me, too, at least in the first
browser I tried -- pasting the result here ( ̵M̵ ) seem not to work quite
as well, at least in how it shows in my composition window.

It prepends and postpends the combining diacritic ̵ to the M of
whichever font is current. A perfectly good approach. Thank you!

tlvp

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May 8, 2017, 10:51:11 PM5/8/17
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On Mon, 8 May 2017 20:36:57 -0400, Stan Brown wrote:

> Such as -- and I know this is crazy, but still I'll risk it -- such
> as the URL?

URLs would be for password-only-accessible pages, alas.

But I've posted a jpg displaying both a 366M and a 2500M (with that clever
M), and a CSS analysis of the M involved, here:

<http://misc.tlvp.net/Test/MaMcurrency.jpg> (1,088px × 489px).

Again, this --

: 366<span class="mam-currency-symbol" aria-hidden="true">M</span>

-- is the code behind the display of the highlighted 366M on that jpg.

Many thanks! Cheers, -- tlvp

Stanimir Stamenkov

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May 9, 2017, 1:10:54 AM5/9/17
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Mon, 8 May 2017 22:23:14 -0400, /tlvp/:

> Sample TD entry, displayed as "366M" (with that decorated M, actually), and
> arising from local HTML fragment
>
> : 366<span class="mam-currency-symbol" aria-hidden="true">M</span>
>
> where, inspecting the element, in FF, the class "mam-currency-symbol"
> appears to involve
>
> : https://www.miles-and-more.com/layout/r172-28/static/mam/res/fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2
>
> and
>
> : @font-face {
> : font-family: "mam-currency-symbol";
> : font-style: normal;
> : font-weight: 400;
> : src: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.eot?#iefix")
> : format("embedded-opentype"),
> : url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2") format("woff2"),
> : url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff") format("woff"),
> : url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.ttf") format("truetype"),
> : url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.svg#DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman")
> : format("svg");
> : }
>
> What more is hidden here, that I am missing?

So it is either the custom font displaying the 'M' decorated as
seen, or given the aria-hidden="true" attribute it could be a CSS
generated content replacing the 'M' (less likely) using the
character sequence I've given in my other reply. When you select
the 'M' (with the decoration), does the selection appears to be a
single character?

--
Stanimir

tlvp

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May 9, 2017, 2:16:58 AM5/9/17
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On Tue, 9 May 2017 08:10:52 +0300, Stanimir Stamenkov asked:

> ... When you select
> the 'M' (with the decoration), does the selection appears to be a
> single character?

Selecting it as it appears in the Miles and More Rewards table? -- Yes,
AFAICT. Cheers, -- tlvp

James Moe

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May 9, 2017, 2:46:50 PM5/9/17
to
On 05/07/2017 09:24 PM, tlvp wrote:
>
> (Sorry, ASCII won't let me get much closer than that dreadful description,
> or the ASCII graphic notion, ┤V├ versus |V| .)
>
Likely it is a special font. If you disable JS, does the M look more
normal?

--
James Moe
jmm-list at sohnen-moe dot com
Think.

tlvp

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May 9, 2017, 11:02:56 PM5/9/17
to
On Tue, 9 May 2017 11:46:43 -0700, James Moe wrote:

> Likely it is a special font. If you disable JS, does the M look more
> normal?

Thanks for asking, James. Next time I'm logged in there (probably on or
after the 15th, when I expect my account status with them to change) I'll
try disabling JS and seeing if the MAM-currency glyph reverts to a plain UC
M; and I'll let you know. Cheers, -- tlvp

tlvp

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May 15, 2017, 11:30:03 PM5/15/17
to
On Tue, 9 May 2017 23:03:00 -0400, tlvp wrote:

> On Tue, 9 May 2017 11:46:43 -0700, James Moe wrote:
>
>> Likely it is a special font. If you disable JS, does the M look more
>> normal?
>
> Thanks for asking, James. Next time I'm logged in there (probably on or
> after the 15th, when I expect my account status with them to change) I'll
> try disabling JS and seeing if the MAM-currency glyph reverts to a plain UC
> M; and I'll let you know. Cheers, -- tlvp

Without having found how to disable JS, what I do see an ASCII "M" classed
as "mam-currency-symbol" via the following span tag:

: <span class="mam-currency-symbol" aria-hidden="true">M</span>

coupled with a font-face invocation

: @font-face {
: font-family: "mam-currency-symbol";
: font-style: normal;
: font-weight: 400;
: src: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.eot?#iefix") format("embedded-opentype"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2") format("woff2"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff") format("woff"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.ttf") format("truetype"),
: url("../fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.svg#DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman") format("svg");
: }

that loads a remote font

: DLH Helvetica Currency Symbol Roman Regular

seemingly from

<https://www.miles-and-more.com/layout/r172-28/static/mam/res/fonts/DLHHelveticaCurrencySymbol-Roman.woff2>.

So it looks to me as if LH is relying on an idiosyncratic M glyph in a
purpose-built font of their design, perhaps designed using something like
the MS Private Character Editor exactly by mashing up a s.c. M, fore and
aft, with the &#x335; glyph that Stanimir (Blagodarim!) proposed earlier.

I guess I'll let it go at that. Many thanks to all who chimed in.
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