Derive Unicode is fully compatible with the Unicode Standard, version 4.0.  It offers complete and unconditional multilingual support, without overlapping mathematical usage. 


Unlike earlier versions of Derive, no Greek or Latin Letters are reserved or used with special mathematical semantics.  For example, the Latin letter ê is not used for the base of the natural logarithms, and the Greek letter à is not used for the Gamma function.  Unicode characters with ambiguous or non-standard mathematical semantics are not used either.  Derive uses mathematical symbols and characters with a unique assignment in the Unicode Standard (e.g. Ó and Ð) and maps missing ones (e.g. e, ð, and æ) in the Private Use Area of Derive Unicode.


Derive follows the standard mathematical practice of using some Greek and Latin letters for constants and functions.  Use context rather than appearance to distinguish between them.  For example, the italicized variable e looks similar but is distinct from the base of the natural logarithms e.  Also the capital Greek letter alpha looks identical to the Latin letter A, and the capital Greek letter gamma looks similar to the character used for the Gamma function.  Therefore, users may wish to avoid mixing such look-alike characters, although Derive imposes no such restrictions.


To distinguish between the alphabetic and mathematical usage of some letters (e, i, ð, ã, Ã, æ, ÷, and ø), the mathematical characters are encoded in the Private Use Area of Derive Unicode.  This allows for minor glyph variations to help distinguish between the two usages, but the variations are always within standard mathematical and typographic practice.


Additional topics concerning Derive Unicode:

       Entering Unicode CharactersEntering_Unicode_Characters 

       Reserved Unicode CharactersReserved_Unicode_Characters 

       Unicode BibliographyUnicode_Bibliography 


Other Help Contentsidh_Contents 

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