1 Last update: 2005-01-17, version 1.4 2 3This file is maintained by H. Peter Anvin <unicode@lanana.org> as part 4of the Linux Assigned Names And Numbers Authority (LANANA) project. 5The current version can be found at: 6 7 http://www.lanana.org/docs/unicode/unicode.txt 8 9 ------------------------ 10 11The Linux kernel code has been rewritten to use Unicode to map 12characters to fonts. By downloading a single Unicode-to-font table, 13both the eight-bit character sets and UTF-8 mode are changed to use 14the font as indicated. 15 16This changes the semantics of the eight-bit character tables subtly. 17The four character tables are now: 18 19Map symbol Map name Escape code (G0) 20 21LAT1_MAP Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) ESC ( B 22GRAF_MAP DEC VT100 pseudographics ESC ( 0 23IBMPC_MAP IBM code page 437 ESC ( U 24USER_MAP User defined ESC ( K 25 26In particular, ESC ( U is no longer "straight to font", since the font 27might be completely different than the IBM character set. This 28permits for example the use of block graphics even with a Latin-1 font 29loaded. 30 31Note that although these codes are similar to ISO 2022, neither the 32codes nor their uses match ISO 2022; Linux has two 8-bit codes (G0 and 33G1), whereas ISO 2022 has four 7-bit codes (G0-G3). 34 35In accordance with the Unicode standard/ISO 10646 the range U+F000 to 36U+F8FF has been reserved for OS-wide allocation (the Unicode Standard 37refers to this as a "Corporate Zone", since this is inaccurate for 38Linux we call it the "Linux Zone"). U+F000 was picked as the starting 39point since it lets the direct-mapping area start on a large power of 40two (in case 1024- or 2048-character fonts ever become necessary). 41This leaves U+E000 to U+EFFF as End User Zone. 42 43[v1.2]: The Unicodes range from U+F000 and up to U+F7FF have been 44hard-coded to map directly to the loaded font, bypassing the 45translation table. The user-defined map now defaults to U+F000 to 46U+F0FF, emulating the previous behaviour. In practice, this range 47might be shorter; for example, vgacon can only handle 256-character 48(U+F000..U+F0FF) or 512-character (U+F000..U+F1FF) fonts. 49 50 51Actual characters assigned in the Linux Zone 52-------------------------------------------- 53 54In addition, the following characters not present in Unicode 1.1.4 55have been defined; these are used by the DEC VT graphics map. [v1.2] 56THIS USE IS OBSOLETE AND SHOULD NO LONGER BE USED; PLEASE SEE BELOW. 57 58U+F800 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 1 59U+F801 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 3 60U+F803 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 7 61U+F804 DEC VT GRAPHICS HORIZONTAL LINE SCAN 9 62 63The DEC VT220 uses a 6x10 character matrix, and these characters form 64a smooth progression in the DEC VT graphics character set. I have 65omitted the scan 5 line, since it is also used as a block-graphics 66character, and hence has been coded as U+2500 FORMS LIGHT HORIZONTAL. 67 68[v1.3]: These characters have been officially added to Unicode 3.2.0; 69they are added at U+23BA, U+23BB, U+23BC, U+23BD. Linux now uses the 70new values. 71 72[v1.2]: The following characters have been added to represent common 73keyboard symbols that are unlikely to ever be added to Unicode proper 74since they are horribly vendor-specific. This, of course, is an 75excellent example of horrible design. 76 77U+F810 KEYBOARD SYMBOL FLYING FLAG 78U+F811 KEYBOARD SYMBOL PULLDOWN MENU 79U+F812 KEYBOARD SYMBOL OPEN APPLE 80U+F813 KEYBOARD SYMBOL SOLID APPLE 81 82Klingon language support 83------------------------ 84 85In 1996, Linux was the first operating system in the world to add 86support for the artificial language Klingon, created by Marc Okrand 87for the "Star Trek" television series. This encoding was later 88adopted by the ConScript Unicode Registry and proposed (but ultimately 89rejected) for inclusion in Unicode Plane 1. Thus, it remains as a 90Linux/CSUR private assignment in the Linux Zone. 91 92This encoding has been endorsed by the Klingon Language Institute. 93For more information, contact them at: 94 95 http://www.kli.org/ 96 97Since the characters in the beginning of the Linux CZ have been more 98of the dingbats/symbols/forms type and this is a language, I have 99located it at the end, on a 16-cell boundary in keeping with standard 100Unicode practice. 101 102NOTE: This range is now officially managed by the ConScript Unicode 103Registry. The normative reference is at: 104 105 http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html 106 107Klingon has an alphabet of 26 characters, a positional numeric writing 108system with 10 digits, and is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom. 109 110Several glyph forms for the Klingon alphabet have been proposed. 111However, since the set of symbols appear to be consistent throughout, 112with only the actual shapes being different, in keeping with standard 113Unicode practice these differences are considered font variants. 114 115U+F8D0 KLINGON LETTER A 116U+F8D1 KLINGON LETTER B 117U+F8D2 KLINGON LETTER CH 118U+F8D3 KLINGON LETTER D 119U+F8D4 KLINGON LETTER E 120U+F8D5 KLINGON LETTER GH 121U+F8D6 KLINGON LETTER H 122U+F8D7 KLINGON LETTER I 123U+F8D8 KLINGON LETTER J 124U+F8D9 KLINGON LETTER L 125U+F8DA KLINGON LETTER M 126U+F8DB KLINGON LETTER N 127U+F8DC KLINGON LETTER NG 128U+F8DD KLINGON LETTER O 129U+F8DE KLINGON LETTER P 130U+F8DF KLINGON LETTER Q 131 - Written <q> in standard Okrand Latin transliteration 132U+F8E0 KLINGON LETTER QH 133 - Written <Q> in standard Okrand Latin transliteration 134U+F8E1 KLINGON LETTER R 135U+F8E2 KLINGON LETTER S 136U+F8E3 KLINGON LETTER T 137U+F8E4 KLINGON LETTER TLH 138U+F8E5 KLINGON LETTER U 139U+F8E6 KLINGON LETTER V 140U+F8E7 KLINGON LETTER W 141U+F8E8 KLINGON LETTER Y 142U+F8E9 KLINGON LETTER GLOTTAL STOP 143 144U+F8F0 KLINGON DIGIT ZERO 145U+F8F1 KLINGON DIGIT ONE 146U+F8F2 KLINGON DIGIT TWO 147U+F8F3 KLINGON DIGIT THREE 148U+F8F4 KLINGON DIGIT FOUR 149U+F8F5 KLINGON DIGIT FIVE 150U+F8F6 KLINGON DIGIT SIX 151U+F8F7 KLINGON DIGIT SEVEN 152U+F8F8 KLINGON DIGIT EIGHT 153U+F8F9 KLINGON DIGIT NINE 154 155U+F8FD KLINGON COMMA 156U+F8FE KLINGON FULL STOP 157U+F8FF KLINGON SYMBOL FOR EMPIRE 158 159Other Fictional and Artificial Scripts 160-------------------------------------- 161 162Since the assignment of the Klingon Linux Unicode block, a registry of 163fictional and artificial scripts has been established by John Cowan 164<jcowan@reutershealth.com> and Michael Everson <everson@evertype.com>. 165The ConScript Unicode Registry is accessible at: 166 167 http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/ 168 169The ranges used fall at the low end of the End User Zone and can hence 170not be normatively assigned, but it is recommended that people who 171wish to encode fictional scripts use these codes, in the interest of 172interoperability. For Klingon, CSUR has adopted the Linux encoding. 173The CSUR people are driving adding Tengwar and Cirth into Unicode 174Plane 1; the addition of Klingon to Unicode Plane 1 has been rejected 175and so the above encoding remains official. 176