Unicode discovery additional alphabets and tiddlywiki, and a keyboard Question

[TW Tones]

Folks,

I have discovered that the Unicode standard has additional alphanumeric characters here https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf

The are commonly used to represent variable and other mathematical or algebraic symbols. More often than not these will be used within a formula. Some of out tiddlywiki users are mathematicians and will be familiar with this.

If however you are not a mathematician they remain available to be used in a novel way. For example a tiddler named ｌｉｓｔ uses a different full width character set and their are at least 6 other full alpha numeric sets.

In tiddlywiki it actually supports these character sets as tiddler titles and the search will not find them unless you are searching using characters from the alternate set. These characters display differently like ｌｉｓｔ or 𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 or 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭.

Now I see quite a lot of uses for this but there is one thing I can't find, I want to quickly remap my keyboard to use one of the alternate sets only for alphanumeric keys, upper and lower case, and switch back with ease, All my searches point to changing languages, or entering Unicode from a multi-key strokes and not what I need.

Any ideas or pointers would be great. 

• I am using windows 10
• There must be software already for this is my guess
• It would be ideal if a onscreen keyboard is needed, that while open you can use the matching key to type text off the physical keyboard.

Why?

• This effectively creates an additional namespace for each character set, remember these look like different fonts but they are also different characters.
• An example may be for different tiddlers named list, ｌｉｓｔ, 𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 or 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭. 
• One could be a standard tiddler "list", a tiddler to transclude for ｌｉｓｔs, a tiddler defining a variable called 𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 etc...
• I have tested tiddler titles and macro definitions and they work and are different from those with the standard character set.
• There are other opportunities exposed by this if I can find an easy way to use them, this post would be too long winded I tried to share these now. 

Thanks in advance if you have any experience with this and can share.

Tones

[TW Tones]

By the way,

I just thought I would mention some of our gurus may know how to build the ability to type in the alternate alpha-numeric characters into tiddlywiki, an example may be a custom language that maps to these alternates.

What if this could go into the pre-release or a plugin for it were available?

 additional alphanumeric characters here https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf

Regards

Tones

[Charlie Veniot]

G'day Tones,

I've never used this, but I'm thinking it is the way to go:  Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator.

Check out this video and see if that would work:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcxltyn0nbE

Then you'd just be switching between keyboards when you need the unicode characters?

[TiddlyTweeter]

Tones

There are numerous Windows utilities for this, as well as Windows own keyboard mapping utils (somewhat cumbersome to set up).

In my own case I daily use PopChar (full blown utility that also shows the font supported variants) & FrKeys (old XP utility that stiil works and is nicely minimal, very easy to configure.)

I should have added that I run these and use "click-on-character" rather than keyboard assignments. Since FrKeys I always foreground its never "a number of strokes needed issue" and its fully portable between Windows systems.

In TW, for standard use, I tend to use the editor's stamp tool  too since it can be configured to "pair" opening and closing strings.

Best wishes

TT

[TiddlyTweeter]

Please note I updated my last post to clarify the usage as follows.

On Monday, 26 October 2020 08:27:49 UTC+1, TiddlyTweeter wrote:

Tones

There are numerous Windows utilities for this, as well as Windows own keyboard mapping utils (somewhat cumbersome to set up).

In my own case I daily use PopChar (full blown utility that also shows the font supported variants) & FrKeys (old XP utility that stiil works and is nicely minimal, very easy to configure.)

ADDED ... I should have added that I run these using "click-on-character" rather than keyboard assignments. Since FrKeys I always foreground its never "a number of strokes needed" issue and its fully portable between Windows systems.

[TiddlyTweeter]

TW Tones wrote:

I have discovered that the Unicode standard has additional alphanumeric characters here https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf

 Unicode is brilliant. Its an "elusive obvious". One to explicitly use a lot, lot more.

The PROBLEM now is not lack of machine support--its the problem of being SURE the glyphs you are using have proper FONT support.

This is no problem on local machines because IF you have the glyph in a font on your machine it will show up.

The problem is only IF you want to be sure an end user ONLINE can see the glyph. There its more complex.

A reasonable route for TW is to check the presence of the glyphs in the fonts listed in TW (mainly Mac fonts in the Empty download?) .

This is because one needs to beware of getting confused by the "local machine's" cascade of font substitution. 

That is exactly where Unicode support can get confusing.

FWIW, I use BabelMap to double check that specific TW (Standard Windows 10) fonts contain the needed glyphs IF the TW is destined for on-line.

Best wishes

TT

[TW Tones]

TT,

You clearly know more about this than myself. When I read about "Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols" I keep seeing references not to be used as "prose text". There is good reason for this as they look like normal text with a font style applied but they are not the same. However it seems to me this very reason may be its very value, at least in tiddlywiki, The tag 

𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 is different to the tag list 

macros can be written with the name 𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 and more.

We often talk about semantics and and using plan "English" language for tiddlers, macros, fields etc... 

Yes there are issues with the front end user accessing these without knowledge of these different character set. But when developing a tiddlywiki it could have some real advantages.

For example I could define tiddlers for tags and fields.

For example I could code a method to define tag tiddlers with the equivalent in a different character set. I can have "same name" multiple times, each performing a different purpose. Once created they can be applied from a list, although searched only if you can copy the alternate character text. 

I have followed the various leads shared with me but I am yet to find a way to exchange current alphanumeric's on my keyboard with those from the other mathematical alphanumeric sets, with a setting, so I can simply type as if is was standard. Upper and lower case! 26x2+10numerals or 62 alphanumerics per set.

Yes some of these solutions provide a path to this outcome by allowing new mappings however, that is a lot of work that could have being automated in a given solution. There are multiple sets of alphanumerics so this will take a lot of time if I can't find such a specific solution. I would have thought this had being done before, or am I at the bleeding edge?

I will test it in a wider set of circumstances but they are resolving in Chrome and Firefox without alteration. Although it is true depending how I design it may not matter to end users if such fonts are only used behind the scenes. 

Regards

Tones