Once a character is encoded, it will not be moved or removed.
This policy ensures that implementers can always depend on each version of the Unicode Standard being a superset of the previous version. The Unicode Standard may deprecate the character (that is, formally discourage its use), but it will not reallocate, remove, or reassign the character.
Apparently it's semantically fac·sim·i·le. Which means (according to Google) "an exact copy, especially of written or printed material."
My argument is something like, why not just write FAX. Or is the counter that some fonts will specialize this character to something closer to the native language? That seems unlikely, and instead people will probably learn that FAX means "to make alike", from Latin. Or is it that we need to make it just a little bit above the baseline to indicate that it's special. Surely "FAX" isn't the only thing that should be allowed to be special, right? But then that's a whole can of worms. Anyway, I'm rambling...
This was the best I could do in the limited time I had (I really should be asleep by now).
Well, fax machines are still in use here (most notably in mdeical offices, it seams), but superscript abbreviations? Never seen them in the last 40 years. I mean, yes, I have seen the letters FAX or TEL in front of the number, but never really explicitely as a new character (AFAI can tell).
This would also fit best with the experience that people crafting cards or letterheads never really know all the intricacies of Word, or Unicode, or whatever they use, and just "make it look good" - use tabstops instead of tables, simply type FAX and mark it as superscript, etc...
> This would also fit best with the experience that people crafting cards or letterheads never really know all the intricacies of Word, or Unicode, or whatever they use, and just "make it look good" - use tabstops instead of tables, simply type FAX and mark it as superscript, etc...
I mean, that’s widely known anyway. Look at most letterhead templates online, pretty much all of them are broken and quite painful in the way they’re built. Broken tables, tabstops, all combined painfully.
Often enough proper tables would simplify a lot, if combined with columns one can create amazing things. If one even adds automated hide/unhide elements (e.g. page count, automated Internetmarke or hiding it if unused, etc) one can create stuff that’d save hours of work every day.
Actually, nowadays PDFs in email are also accepted instead of fax! (or emails signed with the ePerso S/MIME function).
So far a court, a health insurance company, the national pension fund, and some municipal administrations I've had contact with all have accepted PDFs attached to emails just fine :)
And if you ever need actual fax functionality, the most common home router (Fritz!Box) has a virtual fax machine integration, so you can send and receive faxes with an app or an email gateway from your own VoIP SIP "landline" connection.
I assume it was intended to indicate after a telephone number that a telefax was connected to it. For example when writing contact details on a business card.
I imagine the only way that will ever happen is a situation like the gun to water pistol transition, where enough implementers agreed to change the representation.
