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Unicode Explained
Fundamentally, computers just deal with numbers. They store
letters and other characters by assigning a number for each
one. There are hundreds of different encoding systems for
mapping characters to numbers, but Unicode promises a single
mapping. Unicode enables a single software product or
website to be targeted across multiple
platforms, languages
and countries without re-engineering. It's no wonder that
industry giants like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, IBM
andMicrosoft have all adopted Unicode.
Containing everything you need to understand Unicode, this
comprehensive reference from O'Reilly takes you on a
detailed guide through the complex character world. For
starters, it explains how to identify and classify
characters - whether they're common, uncommon, or exotic. It
then shows you how to type them, utilize their properties,
and process character data in a robust manner.
The book is broken up into three distinct parts. The first
few chapters provide you with a tutorial presentation of
Unicode and character data. It gives you a firm grasp of the
terminology you need to reference various components,
including character sets, fonts and encodings, glyphs and
character repertoires.
The middle section offers more detailed information about
using Unicode and other character codes. It explains the
principles and methods of defining character codes,
describes some of the widely used codes, and presents code
conversion techniques. It also discusses properties of
characters, collation and sorting, line breaking rules and
Unicode encodings. The final four chapters cover more
advanced material, such
as programming to support Unicode.
You simply can't afford to be without the nuggets of
valuable information detailed in Unicode Explained.
Part I.
1. Characters as Data
2. Writing Characters
3. Character Sets and Encodings
Part II.
4. The Structure of Unicode
5. Properties of Characters
6. Unicode Encodings
Part III.
7. Characters and Languages
8. Character Usage
9. The Character Level and Above
10. Characters in Internet Protocols
11. Characters in Programming
A. Tables for Writing Characters
Index
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