Quebec vs the flag emoji
The National Assembly passed a motion this week asking for the creation of a Quebec flag emoji. The thing is, one already exists. It’s not available on all platforms, but neither are many of the other regional flags that exist.
My iPhone, for example, has a Scots and a Welsh flag – but technically Scotland and Wales are different countries from England. Quebec clearly would like to see itself in that sort of category, and not like individual provinces, or individual states in Australia or the U.S., none of which are on my phone either.
Blork 11:12 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Is there an emoji for banging your head against a table?
ant6n 11:14 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Does anybody have a link to the actual motion? News sites never link to sources.
Kevin 11:16 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
This is the kind of thing that, when you stop to think about it, symbolizes exactly how much change there has been in Quebec since the ’50s — and how some people have completely failed to recognize how much life has changed.
Daniel D 12:20 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Here’s the entry in Emojipedia (perhaps the best reference for looking up Emoji as it’s kept fastidiously up to date): https://emojipedia.org/flag-for-quebec-caqc
There’s no mention there of it being available on any platform yet, but that’s not to say some platforms don’t support it (it just seems it’s none of the major ones).
I would imagine the issue is the Unicode Consortium would only implement the Quebec flag alongside all the Canadian provincial and territorial flags as well as US states. I’m sure there’s demand for this though, but I’m exceedingly doubtful they would be willing to just implement Quebec’s on its own.
Mark Côté 12:36 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Assuming I do understand this issue properly, it’s not really up to the Unicode Consortium, is it? They have already added it. Rather, it’s just platforms, e.g. OS vendors, to implement it, and they’ve apparently decided it is not worth the time and effort to add every single emoji to their software. So if the Quebec government really cares, they need to start lobbying Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.
MarcG 12:57 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1953/
Blork 13:22 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
The great thing about standards is we have so many to choose from.
Uatu 13:43 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
FFS, now that the pandemic is under control it’s back to nonsensical bullshit from the caq. Give me a fucking break
Ephraim 17:16 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
There are over 3500 different provinces and states around the world. If we give them each an emoticon, we’ll never be able to scroll through them all in a day.
Ant6n 17:28 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Well it’s already on the Unicode standard, just no platform implements it. That’s why I’m curious what the motion actually says. Like, who are they demanding should implement it.
Also, this thing passed unanimously without debate, like nobody could bother to check with an expert what the status of this is?
Ant6n 17:39 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Found it, page 31: http://www.assnat.qc.ca/Media/Process.aspx?MediaId=ANQ.Vigie.Bll.DocumentGenerique_174569&process=Default&token=ZyMoxNwUn8ikQ+TRKYwPCjWrKwg+vIv9rjij7p3xLGTZDmLVSmJLoqe/vG7/YWzz
They actually asked the government to request this from the Unicode consortium, and its already in the standard!
Kate 18:11 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Thanks for finding that, ant6n. I had a look but couldn’t find it.
John B 18:15 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
It sounds like a way to encode it exists, but it’s not “Recommended for General Interchange.” In short, stuff that’s Recommended for General Interchange gets implemented by everyone, stuff that’s not does not. What they should have requested is that the consortium Recommend the Quebec emoji for General Interchange.
Interesting to note that the text of the motion includes
“Plusieurs” = 3 apparently. Only England, Scotland, and Wales are RGI. WhatsApp also supports Texas.
Quick correction for Ant6n’s link – the vote results are on page 31, but the text of the resolution is on page 10.
Ant6n 23:45 on 2021-05-28 Permalink
Okay well this is really deep in the Unicode spec, the encoding of regional flags is part of the emoji spec and defines how regional flags are encoded: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#emoji_data
It links to the list of valid regional sequences, which includes „caqc“. https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/maint/maint-38/common/validity/subdivision.xml
the rgi sequences are defined here, and Inge only include england/scitland/wales: https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/13.1/emoji-sequences.txt
I don’t know what is required to make these sequences rgi – or which OSs support which non rgi sequences.