character proposal

[Thom Linden <baggins@IBM.com>]

Below are the minimum changes going into the character proposal.
This list was presented on a foil at the Hawaii meeting.


-- some minor corrections (bugs)

-- the registry document will:
     -- be an appendix to the standard, not required
     -- reference appropriate ISO standards (only)

-- character 'index' will be changed to character 'label' throughout
     (labels are strings, not numeric values)

-- add the function char-ccs-value which takes a character object
     and coded character set name and returns the value of
     the character within that encoding.

-- add the function sgchar which is similar to sbchar but takes
     a general-string object.

-- modify char-name, name-char, and #\name  to accept character
     names of the form 'registry:label'


As decided at the Hawaii meeting, the proposal will be voted on
at the March meeting (rather than by mail).  In particular, there
were requests to partition the vote.  If you have any specific
partition you would favor (eg. vote on external-width separately),
please let us know.  (Note, the ballot is being split, not the
document).  I'll probably send out a few informal ballots to get
a feeling for the partitioning as well identifing the controversial
items.


I will be revising the document and encourage any comments to
be sent immediately.  I hope to send out a revision at the end of
this week.  If there are additional comments (on the revision)
I will repeat this process if necessary to obtain a 'clean' version
for the March vote.