Friday, March 30, 2018

ICU 61 Released

ICU LogoUnicode® ICU 61 has just been released. This version upgrades to CLDR 33, has a new Java implementation for number and currency parsing, and includes many small API additions, improvements, and bug fixes.

ICU is a software library widely used by products and other libraries to support the world's languages, implementing both the latest version of the Unicode encoding standard and of the Unicode locale data (CLDR).

For details please see http://site.icu-project.org/download/61

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

CLDR Version 33 Released

Bold image Unicode CLDR 33 provides an update to the key building blocks for software supporting the world’s languages. This data is used by all major software systems for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages for such common software tasks.

This release had a limited submission phase. The focus was on improvements to emoji keywords and to the Odia and Assamese locales, addition of typographic names data, and improvements to the structure for specifying keyboard layouts. Improvements include:
  • Structure
    • New structure for typographicNames translations (such as terms for Bold, Italic, ...), with data for 33 locales.
    • The structure for specifying keyboard layouts was significantly enhanced, with many new elements and attributes, and expanded syntax for some preëxisting attribute values.
  • Additional Translations/Data
    • Annotations (emoji keywords) for a limited set of locales had a full review (ar, en_GB, de, es, ja, ru).
    • Two additional locales (Odia, Assamese) were brought up to Modern coverage level; some missing items were added in other locales.
    • Added 4 new transforms, and number spellout rules for 6 additional languages.
  • Property files
    • The emoji property data file ExtendedPictographic.txt has been removed from CLDR data, since the contents are now part of the UTS #51 “Unicode Emoji” data.
    • labels.txt was added for emoji categories and subcategories. 
For further details and links to documentation, see the CLDR Release Notes.

About the Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard and related globalization standards.

The membership of the consortium represents a broad spectrum of corporations and organizations, many in the computer and information processing industry. Members include: Adobe, Apple, Emojipedia, Facebook, Google, Government of Bangladesh, Government of India, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging, Netflix, Shopify, Sultanate of Oman MARA, Oracle, Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha, SAP, Symantec, Tamil Virtual University, The University of California (Berkeley), plus well over a hundred Associate, Liaison, and Individual members. For a complete member list go to http://www.unicode.org/consortium/members.html

For more information, please contact the Unicode Consortium http://www.unicode.org/contacts.html.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Unicode 11.0 Beta Review

U11 beta image The beta review period for Unicode 11.0 has started. The Unicode Standard is the foundation for all modern software and communications around the world, including all modern operating systems, browsers, laptops, and smart phones—plus the Internet and Web (URLs, HTML, XML, CSS, JSON, etc.). The Unicode Standard, its associated standards, and data form the foundation for CLDR and ICU releases. Thus it is important to ensure a smooth transition to each new version of the standard.

Unicode 11.0 includes a number of changes. Some of the Unicode Standard Annexes have modifications for Unicode 11.0, often in coordination with changes to character properties. In particular, there are major changes to UAX #29, Unicode Text Segmentation. Seven new scripts have been added in Unicode 11.0, including Hanifi Rohingya. A major adjustment has been made to the Georgian script, with the introduction of uppercase Georgian letters. There are also 66 additional emoji characters.

Please review the documentation, adjust your code, test the data files, and report errors and other issues to the Unicode Consortium by April 23, 2018. Feedback instructions are on the beta page.

See http://unicode.org/versions/beta-11.0.0.html for more information about testing the 11.0.0 beta.

See http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode11.0.0/ for the current draft summary of Unicode 11.0.0.

About the Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard and related globalization standards.

The membership of the consortium represents a broad spectrum of corporations and organizations, many in the computer and information processing industry. Members include: Adobe, Apple, Emojipedia, Facebook, Google, Government of Bangladesh, Government of India, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging, Netflix, Sultanate of Oman MARA, Oracle, SAP, Shopify, Symantec, Tamil Virtual University, The University of California (Berkeley), plus well over a hundred Associate, Liaison, and Individual members. For a complete member list go to http://www.unicode.org/consortium/members.html.

Over 130,000 characters are available for adoption, to help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages.

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Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Call for Unicode 11.0 and 12.0 Cover Design Art

book cover The Unicode Consortium is inviting artists and designers to submit cover design proposals for Versions 11.0 and 12.0 of The Unicode Standard. This call is being issued simultaneously for the next two versions of the standard, scheduled for publications in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The two selected cover designs will appear on the Unicode Standard 11.0 and 12.0 web pages, in the print-on-demand publications, and in associated promotional literature on the Unicode website. The two artists whose designs are selected for the covers will receive full credit in the colophon of the publication for which the art is used, and wherever else the design appears, and will each receive $700. Two selected runner-up artists will receive $150 apiece.

Please see the announcement page for requirements and more details.