Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Questions about LATIN-1 (8859-1)
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.170515.2058@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1991 17:05:15 GMT
References: <1991Apr16.130422.16607@dde.dk>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology

In article <1991Apr16.130422.16607@dde.dk> ct@dde.dk (Claus Tondering) writes:
>1) What is the currency symbol used for? And who uses it?

Nothing and nobody, but it's an international standard. :-(  In theory it
is used when you want a currency symbol but don't want to use the symbol
of a specific currency, e.g. the dollar sign.

>4) Do the Germans consider the double-s (position 0xdf) a lower-case
>   letter, or is it both upper and lower case?

My understanding is that it is lowercase only, and has no uppercase
equivalent.

>5) Why does the standard contain the diacritical marks in separate symbol
>   positions, when they are also found as parts of letters? ...

Presumably as an escape hatch so that languages not considered in the design
of Latin 1 can still be written, albeit clumsily.
-- 
And the bean-counter replied,           | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
"beans are more important".             |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry