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Annex B

Handling of Defect Reports on Character Names

Since the publication of ISO/IEC 10646-1 in May 1993, several defect reports requesting changes to character names have been received by WG 2. In principle, the names in the standard are not to be changed. However, there may be situations where changes, deletions or annotations to names of characters may be warranted. The following paragraphs describe the principles of dealing with such defect reports:

a. Explanatory information in Annex Q , "Additional Information on Characters"

If WG 2 decides that the request is justified, WG 2 will first consider accommodating the request by adding explanatory text to Annex Q, "Additional Information on Characters", of the Standard ISO/IEC 10646-1.

b. Non-normative parenthetic annotation of the name

If WG 2 considers that the request falls within the guidelines of Rule 12 in Annex K - Character naming guidelines in the standard, then an appropriate annotation will be added to the character name.

In instances where a name change causes a potential problem for compliance by implementations of existing standard, and if the concern expressed in the defect report may be handled with a simple explanatory note, a note may be added.

c. Deprecation

If WG 2 considers that the character identified in the defect report should not have been in the standard, for reasons such as duplication, or incorrect inclusion in a block, then that coded character will be marked with the annotation "(deprecated character)" after its name.

d. Technical Corrigendum

If WG 2 considers that the character identified in the defect report has indeed been incorrectly named, based on the evidence provided in the defect report, a Technical Corrigendum to correct the name will be prepared and forwarded to the SC 2 secretariat for further processing.

e. Reject

In all other situations, where WG 2 considers that the request is not sufficiently justified or a name change is not warranted, the defect report will not be entertained (will be rejected).

Some Guidelines for Submitters of Defect Reports:

As a supplement to the above information on dealing with defect reports, the submitters can assist the working group by following the guidelines given below:

a) report all defects associated with characters from the same block or set of characters as a single defect report (for example, use a single one for all defects from within a character block such as Malayalam), instead of one for each character..

b) avoid including defective characters from different character blocks or sets in the same report.

c) please check if the defect has already been processed by a national body or considered before by WG 2. Copies of the disposition of prior defect reports can be obtained from the SC 2 Secretariat.

d) if one or more new character(s) - with their own new name and glyph - is proposed to be added in conjunction with a defect report, please submit the addition requests separate from the defect report along with the Proposal Summary Form for them.


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