Everyone knows that "<meta charset="utf-8">ß" is not "ss", and "ss" is not "SS", and "Ä<a href="file://localhost/%C3%84"></a>" is not "<meta charset="utf-8">ä", and "can't" is not "cant". The question is a bit deeper than that. Here is the picture of the behavior:<div>
<br></div><div>IDNA2003 </div><div><ul><li>allows "ß" (mapping to "ss"), "SS" (mapping to "ss"), "Ä<a href="file://localhost/%C3%84"></a>" (mapping to "ä"), "ss", "ä", "cant"</li>
<li>forbids "can't".</li></ul></div><div>IDNA2003</div><div><ul><li>allows "ß" (not mapping to "ss"), "ss", "ä", "cant"</li><li>forbids "Ä<a href="file://localhost/%C3%84"></a>", "SS", and "can't"</li>
</ul></div><meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8"><div><br><div>Mark<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 12:52, Michael Everson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:everson@evertype.com">everson@evertype.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
I'll just say it again. ß is not ss. ß is not ſs either. Þ is not<br>
th.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, Ü is ü.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> I'm not Patrik, but what I think is interesting is that ß is<br>
> meaningless in Swedish. For Swedish users, mapping ß to ss may not<br>
> make sense because ss isn't ß. Same in English, I can't make a fuß<br>
> about something, I have to spell it fuss.<br>
<br>
</div>Ha! You can spell it fuſs though in 18th-century orthography.<br>
<br>
But, um, please remember something.<br>
<br>
Swedish users are not monoglot Swedish speakers.<br>
<br>
American users are not monoglot English speakers.<br>
<br>
I'm allowed to be interested in <a href="http://fussball.ie" target="_blank">fußball.ie</a> if I want. Or in iß-<br>
<a href="http://mich.com" target="_blank">mich.com</a> or <a href="http://imbiss.org" target="_blank">imbiß.org</a> or or for all I know <a href="http://sspiek-inglisch.de" target="_blank">ßpiek-inglisch.de</a>. Am I<br>
not?<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> On the other hand, ß is meaningless, so I don't see that it hurts<br>
> English or Swedish to map it to ss.<br>
<br>
</div>I don't accept that "ß is meaningless". Maybe to someone who has never<br>
seen it, but in this day and age? And German is still taught in<br>
American schools, I am sure. That's where I learnt mine. German<br>
certainly is taught in Irish ones.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Digressing: ß is also very unique. AFAIK it only has this one<br>
> behavior because it was originally kinda like a ligature (some<br>
> typography person's going to correct me :)<br>
<br>
</div>Yes, I am. Its origin is a ligature, but the same can be said of "w".<br>
The letter "G" was once really "C" with a diacritic stroke.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> So unless ß has been adopted by another language I don't think<br>
> there's a language where the mapping is actually wrong. (ou == o is<br>
> actually wrong many places, as is dropping diacritics or doing other<br>
> diacritic mappings). Eszett is unique.<br>
<br>
</div>All right, everyone, get out your crystal balls....<br>
<br>
ß has been used historically in orthographies for Baltic and Germanic<br>
languages.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> On the third hand, ß is also the "correct" spelling for some words,<br>
> so even though a Swiss user might expect something different, and I<br>
> don't see any harm in mapping it, it is clear that fußball should be<br>
> spelled fußball in Germany and Austria. IMO that doesn't make it<br>
> harmful that fußball and fussball end up at the same place.<br>
<br>
</div>The harm in mapping it is that <a href="http://pass.ie" target="_blank">pass.ie</a> is not <a href="http://pass.ie" target="_blank">paß.ie</a><br>
<br>
As I said before, Eisstrasse may be Eisstraße but it cannot be<br>
Eißtrasse or Eißtraße. Here, ss ≠ ß.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Michael Everson * <a href="http://www.evertype.com/" target="_blank">http://www.evertype.com/</a><br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
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