Alphabet ... reflections on the topic ... Complete on a personal one.

    1. The alphabet. Associative connections.

    So much has been said about the alphabet that I will start by quoting Karl Buhler's work “Theory of Language”
    “The alphabet is an associative chain (mechanical sequence), and nothing more; but everyone learned and knows him. Therefore, mapping sequences of any objects to the alphabet is a convenient correlation. We constantly use it in practice for streamlining. It would not be difficult to prove that in the system of signs that make up the natural language, there are many associative chains and interweaving, which from a psychological point of view are at the same level as the alphabetical chain, and which render us the same service in the comprehensive task of streamlining our knowledge about objects and the message of this knowledge to others. "

    Consequently, each element of the alphabet can and should be put in line with a value (which is actually being done now) and close this question. However, not all so simple. It is logical to consider the alphabet of the set of associations A. If i is not equal to j and ai and aj: A, then AI is crossed AJ = empty.
    The mapping T of the set of signs S (objects of the Symbol class) to an alphabet in the language l: L (where L is the set of languages) is denoted by Tl. They (signs) are a kind of source of associations (through the relation Tl). The set of associations generated by the mapping of signs of Tl is denoted by Al (the alphabet of the language l itself). The set Al is finite, it can be numbered, which will be the code of the association or alphabet, but it will be categorically not right to call it the code of the sign. The association generated by the sign s in the language l is denoted by Tl (s). It is clear that Tl (s): Al. Several characters can give rise to the same association. For example, the sign capital letter “A” and small “a” give rise to the same association. Therefore, there can exist s1: S, and s2: S such that Tl (s1) intersected with Tl (s2) is not empty. This is one point. And the second point is that this association depends on the environment or for each language its own set of associations. Those. in the English, French and Russian environment, the same sign can cause different associations. Usually, to implement the mapping Tl, it suffices to construct an association table (it is also the relation Tl), but more complex algorithms can be used, for example, in musical notation, cartography, or in the construction of electrical circuits.
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    2. Grouping characters.

    However, not for all categories of signs there is a need to build their own table of associations. There are signs that evoke associations common to all languages. A true, even stronger statement is true: Different associations in different languages ​​call only objects that we usually call letters. To emphasize this property, combine them into a Letter group. And since the division into groups has already happened, we will break the many signs into several more groups.
    The group is a digit (the Digital group), which includes the signs 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 that cause obvious and identical associations in all modern languages.
    A control character group (Command group) which includes all control and formatting characters. In modern standards, associations of this group are used, but signs are not provided that are displayed directly in the managing associations. By some strange logic, there is no mapping of T characters of this group, and for the graphical representation, characters using an empty association are used and only in the reverse mapping is an “empty association” a sign that mimics the corresponding control association. Those. there is no character that is displayed directly in the line feed association (code 10 in the KOI8 standard), and a character representing a line feed is displayed in the "character association" with code 182 in the KOI8 standard.
    The Mark group includes brackets, quotation marks, commas, and more. The fundamental difference between this group of characters is that they do not participate in lexical analysis, but are independent tokens. Those. they do not form a token by participating in some sequence of characters, but participate in their own presence - the absence directly in the parsing.
    The group of characters Letter has another feature, which is the main purpose of the characters of this group, the sequence of these characters forms its own association, which we will call a token. Tokens are separated from each other by signs of other groups, one of which is a space.
    After dividing the characters into groups, their associations can be accordingly divided into the corresponding groups. Note that for any i and j: L, if s: Letter, then Ti (s) = Tj (s) = As. This fact allows for the signs of these groups to create a single association table for all languages. And, besides this, for all groups except Letter, the “register” property (large, small) does not make sense.

    3. Data entry.

    All of the above groups are united by one controversial quality; all of them can be entered from the keyboard. To do this, they invented the keyboard, as well as standards for both character encodings and keyboard layouts. We emphasize here that it is signs that are entered from the keyboard, not associations. And attempts to match keyboard codes and association codes come up against stubborn resistance to the real situation. But to provide for the introduction of all the necessary signs in practice, of course, is not possible. Therefore, we simply must expand the capabilities of the keyboard. The purpose of the keyboard is to directly correspond to the pressed key, but to do so would always mean increasing the size of the keyboard to unreasonable. Therefore, the method of combining keys is used (simultaneous pressing of several keys) is convenient for the control group of characters. And then the question arises: is it not time to expand the character standard for functions that have already become standard (copy, delete, etc.) and add new characters for editing (new section, note, etc.)? I think it’s real. And for this, come up with a graphic image for each of them (which is often already thought up). Combination of characters is still possible with special sequences. The so-called compositional signs. This technique is widely used for emoticons (a sequence of colon and parentheses) or the sign ® etc. Application for entering characters of composite characters provides ample opportunities for custom characters and emoticons. )? I think it’s real. And for this, come up with a graphic image for each of them (which is often already thought up). Combination of characters is still possible with special sequences. The so-called compositional signs. This technique is widely used for emoticons (a sequence of colon and parentheses) or the sign ® etc. Application for entering characters of composite characters provides ample opportunities for custom characters and emoticons. )? I think it’s real. And for this, come up with a graphic image for each of them (which is often already thought up). Combination of characters is still possible with special sequences. The so-called compositional signs. This technique is widely used for emoticons (a sequence of colon and parentheses) or the sign ® etc. Application for entering characters of composite characters provides ample opportunities for custom characters and emoticons.
    I think it's a good idea to change the correspondence of characters and keyboard keys depending on the environment. A Lebedev keyboard capable of changing the image of characters on keys is in good agreement with our principles.

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