Unicode 5: no Ruble yet
The Ruble symbol design presently being promoted by several parties in the design trade hasn’t yet passed muster with Unicode, neither having been accepted by an official institution, nor having become demonstrably widespread in vernacular usage (aszszelp).
Could a code number have been assigned, even if there is not yet an officially sanctioned glyph form?
6.Apr.2008 12.41pm
wouldn’t you think that was jumping the gun a bit?
6.Apr.2008 1.15pm
No, it’s already a virtual character:
http://www.paratype.ru/cinfo/news.asp?NewsId=78
6.Apr.2008 1.58pm
Unicode mailing list from last month...
http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/y2008-m03/index.html
6.Apr.2008 2.00pm
I believe the Sputnik codepoint is the ideal place for a hack encoded symbol - Oops Apple already took it for the euro. ;-)
6.Apr.2008 2.10pm
The euro already has a codepoint. If they just wait a bit, they can have the U.S. dollar codepoint ;-)
— or not, I guess we may need it for historical purposes, as a placeholder for wisea$$, etc. . . .
6.Apr.2008 2.33pm
No, it’s already a virtual character:
http://www.paratype.ru/cinfo/news.asp?NewsId=78
and in English? :^P
seeing that no one (not least of all the Russian Central Bank) actually uses this symbol, i’ll give an answer to my own question. it’s too early to encode a ruble symbol which has no currency. (sorry for the pun)
6.Apr.2008 2.40pm
At least there are some codepoints left in the currency symbols page. One could put the Ruble mark in the next available one and correct it later if it gets assigned elsewhere or if the official design changes from what appears to be the leading candidate.
7.Apr.2008 11.55am
As far as I know, the new Ruble sign is basically just a local initiative of two private studios (ArtLebedev and Paratype) and is rather unlikely to become an official symbol. Reserving a place in Unicode seems a bit hasty.
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