@tchrist Right. Which means there's a big hole in the process.
@tchrist Getting something engineered right shouldn't go right or wrong depending on whether somebody had their coffee that day, or cared. Anything formal such as a standard should have formal processes for building it also.
I imagine it was available for banks to review, in the sense of "It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of The Leopard'."
@tchrist This is 6.3. @ MICR @+ These magnetic ink character recognition symbols are used on checks. The are derived from the E-13B font and are standardized in ISO 1004:1995. The Unicode character names include several misnomers. 2446 OCR BRANCH BANK IDENTIFICATION = transit 2447 OCR AMOUNT OF CHECK = amount 2448 OCR DASH % MICR ON US SYMBOL = on us 2449 OCR CUSTOMER ACCOUNT NUMBER % MICR DASH SYMBOL = dash
So, if we consider the alias to be an adequate repair, it's half repaired. They didn't fix all of it, just the most egregious bit. "Egregious" is in fact the word choice of Ken Whistler for this little fiasco.
At one point, Python wasn’t doing the correct lookup on "\N{name}" escapes, although Perl and ICU were: you also have to check the NameAliases.txt list. I filed a bug report on that, but I forget what came of it.
Note however, that in Perl we have a More Excellent Way to address this matter.
You can create your own compile-time "\N{some_alias}" names, even for PUA code points, let alone any others.
For example(s):
use charnames (
":full" ,
":short" ,
"latin" ,
"greek" ,
":alias" =>
{
"Aacu" => "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH ACUTE", # Á U+00C1
"aacu" => "LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH ACUTE", # á U+00E1
"Acirc" => "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX", # Â U+00C2
"acirc" => "LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX", # â U+00E2
"acu" => "COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT", # ́ U+0301
Or here, for PUAs:
use charnames ":full", ":alias" => { reverse (
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x00) => "TENGWAR LETTER TINCO",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x01) => "TENGWAR LETTER PARMA",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x02) => "TENGWAR LETTER CALMA",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x03) => "TENGWAR LETTER QUESSE",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x04) => "TENGWAR LETTER ANDO",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x05) => "TENGWAR LETTER UMBAR",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x06) => "TENGWAR LETTER ANGA",
(TENGWAR_BASE + 0x07) => "TENGWAR LETTER UNGWE",
Depending with you use the official Unicode block reserved for eventual Tengwar incorporation, or if you use the BMP area that everybody who makes Tengwar fonts uses.
use constant _CONSCRIPT_UNICODE_REGISTRY => 0x00_E000;
use constant _UNICODE_CONSORTIIUM => 0x01_6080;
use constant TENGWAR_BASE => _CONSCRIPT_UNICODE_REGISTRY;
One does this with apple glyph, too.
use charnames ":alias" => {
e_ACUTE => "LATIN SMALL LETTER E WITH ACUTE",
"APPLE LOGO" => 0xF8FF, # private-use codepoint
};
my $str = "\N{APPLE LOGO}";
It works in files as well.
or using a file containing a list of key-value pairs:
use charnames ":alias" => "pro"; # look in unicore/pro_alias.pl
The specified file should be under a F<unicore/> subdirectory somewhere
in the C<@INC> path, and it should be named using a trailing F<_alias.pl>
at the end. So for example, the file looked for above will be
F<unicore/pro_alias.pl>. This file should return a list in plain Perl:
(
A_grave => "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH GRAVE",
A_circ => "LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH CIRCUMFLEX",
Obviously, this is autoplagiarization of my Unicode chapter in the 4th edition of Programming Perl.
Just use names that have lowercase, or lowercase mixed in, as a signal that they are not the official names. This makes it safe, and signals your intent.
@MετάEd What, you’re afraid the charnames pragma will mutate? Yes, it has changed with time, but not in a backwards-incompatible way. Like adding the :alias bits.
@tchrist Right, but if you write in a later environment, stuff will creep in that works fine where you are testing but won't port to a 5.5 environment, no matter how good your intentions are. You won't catch them because they'll pass your tests.
Neat new tool from Damian called ‘polyperl’, which, in conjunction with Perlbrew, allows you to designate *exactly* which version of Perl your program is running, using the normal ‘env’ on the shebang. It look like: #!/usr/bin/env polyperl use 5.012;
Note that ‘use 5.012;’ *without* polyperl in the shebang would only ensure that the *minimum* version you run will be 5.12. Specifying the actual version, no greater and no lesser? Polyperl! Someday Perl will have this natively, but live for today people, and use the Perl and nothing but the very Perl you want.
It’s not just them. It’s the whole publication chain, now composed principally of weak links.
@MετάEd I find myself accidentally (re)creating a lot of Damian’s tools and tricks. Just because you really need them, I guess.
> And now, I am laughing inside. Damian has his CPAN build/test/release process completely automated. I’ve done the same general type of work to release/deploy my own code to UNH production environments in a scripted, less error prone way. It’s pretty clear that years of reading and listening to Damian have affected me. I am now just as crazy as he is, if only 1/100th as clever.
Not my quote.
@Robusto This very directly connects to sloppy and disorganized code.
Because it indicates a disordered mind.
Who trusts a disordered mind to create something orderly?
> My ten cent opinion of Apple's announcements today: 1) a bunch of OS X stuff that's irrelevant if you don't use Apple iCloud or an iPhone (mostly: Apple catching up to Google on many features) 2) a new programming language (Swift) that borrows ideas from all over the place, but notably lacks any built-in concurrency support and has what looks like an allergy to circular memory references 3) still no updates to the antiquated Mac HFS+ filesystem (versus ZFS support that was promised and unceremoniously withdrawn years ago)
@tchrist Not all of it—there are still pockets of integrity. (I work at a small academic publishing house that is one of them. We do not suffer typos or poor content gladly.)
@tchrist Nobody does real typesetting anymore, so fuck it. Hell, I see egregious typos and obvious "computer typography errors" in Farrar Straus Giroux imprints. No one gives a shit. My dad was a sales manager for a typographer; he'd roll over in his grave to see what passes for printing these days.
For my last book, I sent as a “gift” a copy of Bringhurst to everyone at the publisher involved with bringing the book to print (well, editors and such; not sale&marketeering).
I had warned them.
I said, “If you do a good job, I’ll probably send you a copy of Bringhurst. But if you do a bad job, I’ll definitely send you a copy of Bringhurst.”
2
I believe I sent eight.
And they know why.
I inscribed them all, and sent little hand-written cards with each.
As “Christmas presents”.
The publisher replied in kind, with a hand-written thank-you note.
Because that person still knows how to write with a pen, and what courtesy is. Clearly close to retirement.
Hmm … “if not, to hand-check”? See, I would never accept the publication of a book without every single word and hyphen in the book having been hand-checked at least three times (well—twice, really; the first proofreading is usually pre-setting, so the hyphens can’t be properly checked there).
@tchrist If you ever decide to publish anything within the fields of humanities, theology, philosophy, or the likes, just come to us. We may be slow, but we do all that (as well as independent peer-reviewing) as a matter of course. :-)
It’s summer. I should like to spend each day hiking in the mountains, to go to the Perl Conference and OSCON and YAPC:{EU,NA}, to go to Burning Man. But I doubt I shall be granted time to do any of those things.
How come the little orange available-reviews notifier blurb square thingy in the menu bar at the top of ELU suddenly has a much higher number than ever before, but I can’t seem to access any of them?
Is this something with different types of edits being available to different levels of users?
@Mitch Because you started off, in the beginning when you first got the phone, writing “mmmm” a few times, which means the phone learnt that as a word and subsequently thought “mmm” must be a typo for it.
The way autocorrect works on iPhones is one of the most annoying things about the entire platform. Being unable to choose which words/typos are learnt as dictionary entries—and which aren’t!—is a major drawback.
I have a few typos that I make all the time, and one or two of them have accidentally made it into the dictionary now, with no way of getting rid of them.
You can't just open the dictionary file and edit it in a text editor?
Perhaps it is time you switched to Android at last...
Don't stay behind!
In Swype, I can long-tap a word to delete it from the dictionary as well.
So I can delete uncommon words that interfere with common words, if I want to. Although Swype learns which words I type more often. And it also looks at context.
Open the dictionary file and edit it in a text editor? In a fenced-in environment where files are not accessible in general? No no no. Nothing of the sort. You’d have to jailbreak your phone to access such files (or any files, almost, apart from photos).
Because it breaks the EULA, is a hell of a lot of trouble, means you have to do it again for every incremental update, requires a fair amount of knowledge, and opens up the phone to a lot of malware that it’s ‘immune’ to when unjailbroken.
Meh, I’ve been an Apple user for ten years. I’m used to them. I’ve just never understood why people bothered hating something that is ultimately just one way of structuring (a network of) operating systems and hardware. It’s just a business model.
Well, as this room's designated Apple basher, I must say that they overcharge for their devices, they limit users in bad ways, and they have very annoying idolaters!
You’d be more accurate if you said they overcharged for their devices. The price gap is almost entirely realistic these days. ‘Bad ways’ is entirely subjective—most of the ways they limit users (in iOS, I mean—there is virtually no limitations in OS X that can’t be easily circumvented) are quite sensible to me. And don’t think Windows, Linux, BSD, Android, or any other OS doesn’t have very annoying idolators. ;-)
@Cerb I started out reading that as an actual conversation. Took me five or six lines to realise it was perhaps a tad monotonous for an actual conversation.
@Cerberus The point is is that "mmm" is just as much a word as "mmmm" and despite both being ...gah... they' re both not words so how can their be an official one?
John is playing with definitions again. I guess that’s ok for the target audience, but it makes me squirm.
This seems an extreme simplifications. Pretending English has 200 patternlessly irregular verbs is like claiming 900 in Spanish. Neither is useful. Apart from verbs subjected to suppletion (be, go), almost all verbs called “irregular” in a simplistic or synchronic analysis become “differently regular” in a broader or diachronic one, where other, more subtle patterns appear. That native speakers are passively aware of these deeper patterns can be shown in the creation of new strong verb inflections like dove and snuck. — tchrist2 mins ago
Of course that's true. However, I suggest that this is way too complicated for kids being introduced to English grammar. Especially if they're not native speakers; native speakers have all soaked this up and don't need lists, only correct description. — John Lawler6 mins ago
Apparently sometimes it's anathema to simplify things for students; other times it's just fine.
@Robusto I keep forgetting that ELU is a site for NNS dummies who don’t know spit, not one for professional linguists, etymologists, and serious language enthusiasts.
Because no one in the latter categories would put up with that sort of extreme simplification.
@tchrist My point is that he got all his panties in a bunch when I titled my time graph with a pun on tense. He felt obliged to cock a snoot and tell me what I did there (a service to the NNS crowd, btw) was the equivalent of teaching creationism.
@JanusBahsJacquet I’m doing my best to effect that very thing.
@JanusBahsJacquet I’d ask what he meant by irregular.
Notice that now even John has wedged himself into calling a whole bunch more regular than someone of that teacher’s “qualifications” is ready to understand. He’s roped in the weak-but-not-ed verbs.
Oh, and while I’m on it, shat is also a new strong inflection, by analogy with spit (but not with hit). It used to be shitted.
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…