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What
is Unicode?
Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
• no matter what the platform
• no matter what the program
• no matter what the language |
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Fundamentally, computers just deal with numbers. They store
letters and other characters by assigning a number for each
one. Before Unicode was invented, there were hundreds of
different encoding systems for assigning these numbers.
No single encoding could contain enough characters: for
example, the European Union alone requires several different
encodings to cover all its languages. Even for a single
language like English no single encoding was adequate for
all the letters, punctuation, and technical symbols in common
use.
These encoding systems also conflict with one another. That
is, two encodings can use the same number for two different
characters, or use different numbers for the same character.
Any given computer (especially servers) needs to support
many different encodings; yet whenever data is passed between
different encodings or platforms, that data always runs
the risk of corruption. |
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Unicode
is changing all that!
Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform, no matter what the program,
no matter what the language. The Unicode Standard has
been adopted by such industry leaders as Apple, HP, IBM,
JustSystem, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Sun, Sybase, Unisys
and many others. Unicode is required by modern standards
such as XML, Java, ECMAScript (JavaScript), LDAP, CORBA
3.0, WML, etc., and is the official way to implement ISO/IEC
10646. It is supported in many operating systems, all
modern browsers, and many other products. The emergence
of the Unicode Standard, and the availability of tools
supporting it, are among the most significant recent global
software technology trends.
Incorporating Unicode into client-server or multi-tiered
applications and websites offers significant cost savings
over the use of legacy character sets. Unicode enables
a single software product or a single website to be targeted
across multiple platforms, languages and countries without
re-engineering. It allows data to be transported through
many different systems without corruption.
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