[tcs-lc] Misspelled Names and Orthographic Variants (Issue 005)

[Sally Hinchcliffe]

Bob Morris wrote:
> There is a small gotcha that bit us once. The horticultural code, 
which 
> seems to be incorporated in ICBN by reference , is underspecified on the 
> use of the symbol for cross, which in print is sometimes rendered with 
> the "multiplication" sign, 0xD7 in unicode hex. Not only is this not in 
> the ISO Latin set, but it is unclear to me whether ICBN would treat the 
> same string using the ascii character "X" as an orthographic variant or 
> not in a printed environment and hence(?) in an electronic environment.
> 
Not only that but I once attended a two hour meeting to thrash out 
the issue of whether, if a multiplication x was used, the hybrid 
should be laid out WITHOUT spaces between the names whereas if a 
normal x was used the spaces should be included.
I think the conclusion was that we WOULD include the spaces, 
whatever, even though it was technically incorrect to do so.
So, I think the moral of the story I am drawing here is that whatever 
we decide, we should probably treat multiplication x-es as equivalent 
to alphabet x-es, whatever happens to the debate about orthographic 
variants
Sally
ps the dinosaurs were cute.
*** Sally Hinchcliffe
*** Computer section, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
*** tel: +44 (0)20 8332 5708
*** S.Hinchcliffe at rbgkew.org.uk