by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/06/26 06:31 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/06/26/10323811.aspx
The other day, Jean-François Colson asked over on The Unicode List:
Hello
At http://store.artlebedev.com/electronics/optimus-popularis/ I see a
price in rubles, 31,500 р, where the currency is written р (Cyrillic r).
But that р is displayed as a capital Р (Cyrillic R) with stroke.
I’ve never been in Russia. That’s why I have a few questions:
Is that symbol is in everyday use?
Is it common?
Is it new?
Why doesn’t Unicode support it yet?
Thanks for the answers.
JF
Regular readers might recall this website.
Remember the Optimus Prime keyboard? :-)
Anyway, it takes more than someone trying to sell a new standard, right? :-)
Jukka K. Korpela helped make this point and more:
2012-06-02 22:01, Michael Everson wrote:
> On 2 Jun 2012, at 19:49, Jean-François Colson wrote:
>
>> At http://store.artlebedev.com/electronics/optimus-popularis/ I see a price in
rubles, 31,500 р, where the currency is written р (Cyrillic r).
>> But that р is displayed as a capital Р (Cyrillic R) with stroke.
>> I’ve never been in Russia. That’s why I have a few questions:
>> Is that symbol is in everyday use?
>
> We don't know.
The symbol seems to have its proponents, and the page cited belongs to
one of the eager proponents of the “Lebedev–Tarbeyev symbol”
>> Why doesn’t Unicode support it yet?
>
> Because I haven't written a proposal for it because so far it does not appear that
any of the banking authorities or the Russian Finance Ministry supports it.
The constitution of Russia gives the right to approve a graphic symbol
for the ruble to the Central Bank of Russia. So far, the bank has not
exercised this right.
The page http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/159/ may give a different
impression. It also has some images depicting actual use.
I guess they just never thought of the possibility of submitting a
proposal on adding the symbol to Unicode. Such a proposal would create
an interesting situation, especially if it were accompanied with
substantial demonstration of actual use.
Yucca
It could indeed lead to an even weirder situation where some people with their own agenda submit a proposal which ends up eventually making it into Unicode -- only later on, people who feel (correctly or incorrectly) that their opinions on the matter were not consulted or even recognized.
One could argue this happened for Khmer.
And Tamil.
And Bengali.
And Assamese.
And so on....
Perhaps we should not be so quick to take the new non-sanctioned, nonofficial currency symbol that the government isn't even asking for yet. :-)
S.V. on 26 Jun 2012 11:29 AM:
They did think of this possibility, nearly five years ago:
Michael S. Kaplan on 26 Jun 2012 1:06 PM:
Doing it without the support of the government means it will not be on the money, in fonts, in software....
Doug Ewell on 27 Jun 2012 10:04 AM:
Michael's right. Lebedev is one guy. There's no particular evidence that his initiative has caught on beyond his own website.
Random832 on 29 Jun 2012 6:12 AM:
I don't think I've ever seen a keyboard that accepts a kensington lock before.