RFC 373 (rfc373) - Page 2 of 4

Arbitrary Character Sets

NWG/RFC# 373                        JMC 14-JUL-72 12:41  11058
ARBITRARY CHARACTER SETS  by John McCarthy

Therefore, I would like to suggest that the next step be to arbitrary
character sets.  I suggest implementing this in the following way:

   (1) There be established a registry of characters.  Anyone can
   register a new character.  Each character has a unique number, 17 bits
   should be enough even to include Chinese.  Besides this, each
   character has a name in ASCII usually mnemonic.  Finally, the
   character has a design which is a picture on a 50 by 50 dot matrix.

   (2) Besides the registry of characters, there is a registry of
   characters sets, which different groups are using for different
   classes of documents.  A registered character set has a registry
   number and a table giving the correspondence between the character
   codes as bit sequences and the registered character numbers.

   (3) Associated with a document is a statement of the character code
   used therein.  This may be one of the registered codes or it may
   contain in addition modifications described by an auxiliary table
   giving the code correspondence with registered character numbers.  A
   character code may have an escape character that says that the next
   character is described by its registry number.  The statement of the
   character code may be a header on the document or the receiver may
   have to learn it by some other means, e.g.  because its library
   catalog entry contains this information.

   (4) Devices such as printers and displays draw characters in different
   ways and standardization doesn't seem feasible at present. Therefore,
   it is necessary to provide a way of going from the standard
   description of a character using a 50 by 50 dot matrix to whatever
   method the device uses.  This is up to the programmers who are
   supporting the device.  Some may choose to manually create files
   describing how registered characters are implemented.  They may find
   it too much work to provide for all the characters and to update their
   files when new characters are registered.  Others will provide
   programs for going from the registered descriptions to descriptions
   compatible with their implementations.  Perhaps most will hand tailor
   the characters most used and provide a program for the others.