[Buddha-l] "Western Self, Asian Other"

[Chris Fynn]

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Jan 3, 2010, at 11:21 AM, R B Basham wrote:
> 
>> On HTML, black symbols of uniform size on white background are directly
>> functional. Infinite choices as to size, color, font, and images detract
>> from content, regardless of how flattering, powerful, all sorts of
>> 'desirables' for the composer.

> Holy Java script, Batman! I forgot all about the grim prospects of messages 
> coming in written on flowered "stationery" with text in Apple Marker Felt font 
> set at 18 point in the color mauve. And some would not be able to resist 
> dynamic emoticons that wink, blink, blush, eat, sleep, drink and wet. 
> The technological age has provided us with alternatives to good prose and 
> sound argumentation so numerous as to defy reckoning, and while I trust most 
> buddha-l denizens to have the discipline to refrain from such aesthetic 
> monstrosities as those you mention, there may be some who would assault 
> and batter the rest of us with their eye-candy canes.

Unfortunately in the next version of the Unicode Standard a bunch of 
"Emoji" characters are being encoded "for compatibility with Japanese 
cell phone messaging" at the insistence of the manufacturers of some of 
these cell phones (DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank) aided and abetted by 
Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft. So soon even with plain text you can include 
such characters as  CHERRY BLOSSOM,  LEAF FLUTTERING IN WIND, WOMAN WITH 
BUNNY EARS. LONG NOSED GOBLIN, FISH CAKE WITH SWIRL DESIGN, ALIEN 
MONSTER, MOUNT FUJI, POOP and hundreds of other such things to brighten 
up your Buddha-L messages.
<http://www.unicode.org/~scherer/emoji/table/emoji-20080812.html>

OTOH due to the work of others soon you will also be able to quote 
Buddhist manuscripts in Gandhari and Ranjana using the original script 
as characters for these scripts are also being included in Unicode.

- Chris