The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0 (Hardcover)

~ The Unicode Consortium (Author)

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Product Description

Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language. 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. Unicode is changing all that! 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. It is supported in many operating systems, all modern browsers, and many other products.

From the Back Cover

The authoritative guide to universal character encoding
The official way to implement ISO/IEC 10646
The key to advancing global interoperability in information technology products

Unicode 4.0The Unicode Standard

The Unicode Standard provides a unique code number for every character in electronic text, no matter what the platform, no matter what the application, no matter what the language. It is required for XML and is at the core of modern software products. Unicode 4.0 contains 96,248 characters covering languages of the world. The Unicode Standard contains extensive descriptions of each writing system, as well as definitions of character properties and detailed conformance requirements. It is the complete and definitive user's guide for novices and experts alike.

This edition, The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0, adds 47,188 new characters for minority and historic scripts, several sets of symbols, and a very large collection of additional CJK ideographs. It provides updated specifications covering structure, conformance, character behavior and semantics, as well as implementation guidelines, detailed discussions of writing systems, comprehensive charts, and an extensive glossary. The accompanying CD-ROM includes the text of all the Unicode Standard Annexes and the entire Unicode Character Database.

0321185781B07232003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1504 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321185781
• ISBN-13: 978-0321185785
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.9 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,245,507 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reference for modern programming, March 30, 2004

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The Unicode character set is among the most widely used and least known of the international software standards. Java programmers have used it every day for a decade or so, but barely one in ten appear to know anything about it.

The content of ISO standard 10646 (successor to 8-bit ISO 646), goes way beyond just a charcter set. It contains information critical to the correctness of any program that steps outside the English-language world, i.e. every program on the Internet, and many others sooner or later. This is the basis for correct handling of numerals (there's a lot more than 0 to 9), letters, and text. It's also the explanation for some program behaviors that might otherwise baffle a programmer, or at least a programmer with the wit to be baffled.

More than just crucial, the content of this standard is plain fun. Its snippets of information from every major world language give wonderful insight into how people express themselves. It drives home the delighful diversity of human language and experience. It's also a near-bottomless source of stump-your-friends trivia.

I admit, I'll never use every fact in this incredible assembly. I use a lot of the information, though, and I use it as the point of entry into every discussion of internationalization and localization of software.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the Languages of Man, September 21, 2003

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Anyone dealing with XML or java soon runs into Unicode because this is the standard for representing characters in electronic form in those computer languages. Java, for instance, was designed from its inception to use Unicode. Earlier computer languages like C and C++ can have routines added to handle these, while C# uses XML and hence Unicode.

But chances are, when you deal with Unicode, you only deal with a subset. Often only a small subset at that, unless you are using Chinese/Japanese. Typically you work with ascii and the codes for your spoken language if that is not a Western European language. Very few of us deal with much more than this.

Which illustrates the appeal of the book. The Big Picture. ALL of Unicode. The breadth is stunning. It shows the written form of every major spoken language and many minor ones. Has the pictograms for Chinese [of course]. But also the symbols for Khmer, Canadian Aboriginal, Tamil, Syraic, et cetera, et cetera. Thumbing through this, you may encounter languages that you did not even know existed. It is one thing to say that we live in a multilingual world. But it is another to actually see it expressed comprehensively at the most basic level.

There are two audiences for this book. The first is any computer person who has to deal with issues of internationalisation.

But another audience is every Department of Languages or Cultural Anthropology in a university. If this describes your background, then you should know that you do not need facility in computing to appreciate the significance of this book. You can use it as a standard reference, akin to the Oxford English Dictionary vis-a-vis the English language. Look, ignore the computer stuff in the text. Yes, you can do this. The book groups related languages into common chapters. The explanatory text is lucid and the graphics for the languages lets you easily cross compare. Of course, at a higher level of meaning like sentences, you will need specialised texts in those languages. But to understand a language, you need to start at its letters or pictograms.

Think of this book as an index into all the languages of man.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable resource, September 24, 2003

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This book is one that every programmer should have access to. Packed with all of information concerning the latest standards, with explanations, this is the reference that I use whenever I need data regarding Unicode mappings. I recommend it to all of my students and have asked all libraries where I have influence to add it to their collection.
There is also a CD included with the book. It contains a database of the current and all past versions of the Unicode mappings, a series of Unicode technical reports and an installable version of the Unibook Character Browser, a small utility for viewing character charts and properties. Invaluable if you prefer electronic versions of the data.