Re: Unicode operators [Was: Re: UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ, demos]

[Michael Lazzaro]

Thanks, I've been hoping for someone to post that list. Taking it one step further, we can assume that the only chars that can be used are those which:

-- don't have an obvious meaning that needs to be reserved
-- appear decently on all platforms
-- are distinct and recognizable in the tiny font sizes
used when programming

Comparing your list with mine, with some subjective editing based on my small courier font, that chops the list of usable operators down to only a handful:

Code	Symbol	Comment
167	§	Could be used
169	©	Could be used
171	«	May well be used
172	¬	"Not"?
174	®	Could be used
176	°	Could be used
177	±	Introduces an interesting level of uncertainty?  Useable
181	µ	Could be used
182	¶	Could be used
186	º	Could be used (but I dislike it as it is alphabetic)
187	»	May well be used
191	¿	Could be used

That's all. A shame, because some of the others have very interesting possibilities:

• ≠ ø † ∑ ∂ ƒ ∆ ≤ ≥ ∫ ≈ Ω ‡ ± ˇ ∏ Æ

But if Windows can't easily do them, that's a pretty big problem. Thanks for the list.

MikeL