First-pass comments

[Kent Karlsson]

Below you find my initial remarks on this set of maybe-to-be-proposed
"emoji".

Most of them are "creepy little icons", and I sincerely hope that most
of them
will never be encoded.

Many of the more reasonable ones can be unified with existing
characters, or
are extensions of existing small subgroups of "iconic" symbols.



-------------------


CRESCENT MOON
• Not unified with ☽ U+263D or ☾ U+263E.
(Japanese carriers don't pay attention which quarter moon their
symbols refer to.)

So? I don't find that reason enough to encode a third one. Just choose
one or the
other of ☽ U+263D or ☾ U+263E to unify this one with.

----------------

HOURGLASS WITH FLOWING SAND

I think that one should be unified with U+231B, HOURGLASS.

-----------------


CLOCK SYMBOL
• a general clock symbol

I think that one should be unified with U+231A, WATCH.

-----------------


OPHIUCUS (mispelled)
• letter symbol /Serpentarius (13th zodiacal symbol, not counted as
astrological sign)

It sometimes seems to be counted as astrological sign (in sideral
astrology).
However, the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_astrology
offers a completely different symbol for it, namely STAFF OF
AESCULAPIUS, ⚕. Similar
to the one in http://www.geocities.com/astrologyzodiacs/realsolarzodiac.htm
(CADUCEUS, ☤). See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius,
which says "The Rod of Asclepius also represents the constellation
Ophiuchus, also known
as Ophiuchus Serpentarius, the thirteenth sign of the sidereal
zodiac.".

So I think the symbol for Ophiuchus/Serpentarius can be unified with
that for STAFF OF AESCULAPIUS,
U+2695. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius#Confusion_with_the_Caduceus;
there is also a character named CADUCEUS, so both (sometimes confused)
variant are already
encoded. That someone made a novel (and not generally accepted) glyph
for this astrological
sign as an "emoji" is not a good reason for encoding it separately.
Just annotate U+2695
with "ophiochus, serpentarius, 13th zodiacal symbol in some versions
of sideral astrology"
or similar annotation.

Also note that Unicode encodes the astrological *symbols*, but
**none** of the fancier
*pictograms* commonly used for the astrological signs (nor should they
be encoded in
Unicode). And the symbols DO NOT stand for the (very variable)
pictograms used for this.

-------------------

CONSTELLATION
• zodiacs, fortune telling

STAR OF DAVID WITH MIDDLE DOT?

---------------------

BOOK WITH VERICAL FILL

What is verical fill? ;-)

---------------------

NAME PLATE

The glyph is a very *atypical* nameplate! (Never seen before...)

--------------------

The infamous "SPEAK NO EVIL MONEY". Send them all to my account... ;-)
(Actually, I think
this little "symbol" (not), even if the name is spell corrected, is
one of many in the
proposal that should NOT be encoded.)

--------------------

TOILET, WATER CLOSET, please unify (or better yet, don't encode).

-------------------

FAX

There is already a FACSIMILE SIGN (not a facsimile icon, but a
facsimile sign).

--------------------

MAILBOX, MAILBOX WITH RAISED FLAG

The very-american-mailboxes...

--------------------

MINI DISC , FLOPPY DISK

How retro, these days...

--------------------

POST OFFICE
x (postal mark - 3012)
* 〒 U+3012 POSTAL MARK = ARIB-9108

Unify, please.

---------------------

HOSPITAL
• disunified from U+26E8 (ARIB-9109: BLACK CROSS ON SHIELD) because
all
3 carriers have a cross on a building while ARIB-9109 is a cross on a
shield.
(Note: may be controversial in Islamic and Jewish cultures)

I'd be hard pressed to see the difference between "shield" and
"building" in
the given glyphs as being significant. Indeed, the glyph for this
"emoji" can
well be seen as a shield. Further, the 26E8 character seems to be
getting
the annotation "hospital" (http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/
n3469.pdf).

--------------------

HASH KEY
• pound key, number sign

0023 NUMBER SIGN followed by 20DE COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE
(or by 20E3 COMBINING ENCLOSING KEYCAP)

--------------------

MOBILE Q
• Q mark

Unify with 24C6 CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q

---------------------

VIBRATION MODE, PHONE OFF

These are just GUI icons, not emoticons/emoji.

---------------------

SHAVED ICE, ICE CREAM

"ICE-CREAM CUP" or "CUP OF ICE-CREAM" maybe (not that I like these
food icons)
Please unify! Whether the cup contains ice-cream, sorbet, shaved ice,
or
whatever is irrelevant (you cannot really tell anyway). "CUP OF
DESSERT"?

------------------------

TURKEY LEG

Why not CHICKEN LEG?

---------------------

U+2615 HOT BEVERAGE
• café, coffee

TEA CUP

Please unify.

--------------


CHECKERED DOWN-POINTING SMALL TRIANGLE
• Play arrow down. disunified from U+25BC due to source separation
rule (Shift_JIS).
CHECKERED UP-POINTING SMALL TRIANGLE
• Play arrow up. disunified from U+25B2 due to source separation rule
(Shift_JIS).
CHECKERED UP-POINTING TRIANGLE
• Triangle (pointing up). disunified from U+25B2 due to source
separation rule (Shift_JIS).
CHECKERED DOWN-POINTING TRIANGLE
• Triangle (pointing down). disunified from U+25BC due to source
separation rule (Shift_JIS).

"Source separation" is no longer a valid rule, I think. It should not
be valid anymore...
Otherwise someone can try to force in unifyable stuff. That was ok
when Unicode was
new, but now one should not let someone try to force in bad
disunifications via the
source separation rule.

------------------

For flags, colour is important for the identity. And I don't like that
a small set of a few flags have
been selected. Better not to select any flags at all for encoding as
"symbols".

------------------

HEAVY EXCLAMATION MARK ORNAMENT

Better to use EXCLAMATION MARK or FULLWIDTH EXCLAMATION MARK

--------------------------


BLACK QUESTION MARK
• stationery question mark

Any particular kind of stationery this one is printed on? ;-)

--------------

WHITE QUESTION MARK
• moving question mark
WHITE EXCLAMATION MARK
• moving exclamation mark

Moving!?!? I hope you are not serious! Even as "WHITE" marks
there is no support that these are used contrastively with
ordinary question/exclamation marks. These are purely for effect
and just "glyphs", not characters.

------------------

BEATING HEART
• pulsating heart
SPARKLING HEART
• sparkling heart
GROWING HEART
• heart growing bigger
...and more...

Again, I do hope you are not serious!

-----------------
CROSS MARK
• bad; NO GOOD, not approved; X in tic tac toe. Tentatively disunified
from ✕ U+2715
CROSS MARK ON BACKGROUND
• Another X (orange background)

Please unify with:
2717;BALLOT X;So;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;
2718;HEAVY BALLOT X;So;0;ON;;;;;N;;;;;

-----------------
----------------

[mark.edw...@gmail.com]

These issues have been moved into Issues 53 and 55: naming and
unification suggestions. The suggestions for not encoding or for
unifications that aren't allowed because of source separation have not
been included in those issues.

> However, the Wikipedia articlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_astrology

> offers a completely different symbol for it, namely STAFF OF
> AESCULAPIUS, ⚕. Similar
> to the one inhttp://www.geocities.com/astrologyzodiacs/realsolarzodiac.htm

> (CADUCEUS, ☤). See alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius,

> which says "The Rod of Asclepius also represents the constellation
> Ophiuchus, also known
> as Ophiuchus Serpentarius, the thirteenth sign of the sidereal
> zodiac.".
>
> So I think the symbol for Ophiuchus/Serpentarius can be unified with
> that for STAFF OF AESCULAPIUS,

> U+2695. See alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius#Confusion_with_the_Cadu...