Relative to using the registration number strategy, I'm hesitant for two
reasons. The second may be ok, but someone should check, very
carefully.
(1) This is really an ANSI Standard, whose first version is of hoary
vintage, and should be referenced as such. Given its special status in
822 and 821 (and, for that matter, in Telnet), I think it would be
better to see the system use content identifiers that reflect "ASCII" in
some form, even if every other content identifier that refers to a
character set uses the ISO-RN-nn form (which I basically like, subject
to the qualification below).
(2) I don't have my ECMA registration file in front of me, and it isn't
complete anyway, but my recollection is that registration tables for 94
character sets are registrations for GL only. That is, they have little
grey areas in columns 0 and 1 and positions 2/0 and maybe 7/15. "ASCII"
(as in X3.4) is a complete table, reflecting columns 0 through 7 (C0 as
well as something suitable for mapping to GL).
If so, you can't say "registration NNN" and then talk about CR or LF,
because that registration does not define such creatures.
I applaud the trend toward making everything international and elegant,
but it is lots safer to apply it to "new" things than to try to
retroactively apply it to things that have been in use--and
well-defined-- for a long time. That said, if one followed and extended
the referencing model of RFC821 and RFC822 and said, e.g.,
American National Standard... X3.4-1976,...
and then went on to say...
"for all practical intents and purposes, ISO646 (name, date)
International Reference Version; ISO Registration nn mapped to GL with
ISO Registration mm mapped to C0; columns 0 through 7 of
ISO8859-1,2,3,...; plane 0 (i.e., 32-bit values in the range 032 000
through 032 127) of DIS10646; and UNICODE characters in columns 000
through 007; are all equivalent to this Standard. However, in the
event of any ambiguity, the definitions in X3.4 apply."
... I think it would be a useful public service for readers for whom
ANSI X3.4 may be the least accessible of these authoritative documents.
--john
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