OK, now that I have completed the thread series on the alphabet, I am going to post about the problem of display of the dots and bars.
The problem of showing Morse code in Word documents and in website text boards involves choosing from the available Unicode symbols that can serve to represent the dots, bars (dashes), and the spaces between them. The quickest way to show Morse code would be to use symbols readily available on the keyboard: [.], [-], and the ordinary spaces from use of the spacebar (the forward slash is often used instead). The results are not good to look at though. With software such as Word that allows choice of typeface, we can use one for Morse code, but it would not be generally available for use on a website text board, and copying and pasting the symbols from Word to the website would not work.
boof (OP) double-posted this 1 year ago, 22 seconds later[^][v]#1,327,369
For the dots and bars, I have chosen these Unicode characters: U+25CF Black Circle [●] and U+25AC Black Rectangle [▬]. For spacing, I have two alternative configurations that can be chosen according to preference. Firstly, dots next to each other for representing a single letter have no space adding between them, dots and bars next to each other have U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space [ ], and bars next to each other have U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space [ ]. Secondly, dots next to each other have U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space [ ], dots and bars have U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space [ ], and bars have U+2004 Three-Per-Em Space [ ]. For spacing between sets of symbols that represent letters, I am using U+2003 Em Space [ ], regardless of the choice of spacing between the individual symbols. Two such spaces can separate words.
boof (OP) quadruple-posted this 1 year ago, 2 days later, 2 days after the original post[^][v]#1,328,025
Unicode symbols that could serve as dots and bars
Before I chose which Unicode symbols in the Arial typeface best serve as the dot and bar symbols, I looked at several options. Here are lists, and also a list of available spacing characters.
boof (OP) sextuple-posted this 1 year ago, 50 seconds later, 2 days after the original post[^][v]#1,328,027
spaces
U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space [ ]
U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space [ ]
U+2004 Three-Per-Em Space [ ]
U+2002 En Space (half em) [ ], equivalent U+2000 En Quad [ ]
U+2003 Em Space [ ], equivalent U+2001 Em Quad [ ]
boof (OP) septuple-posted this 1 year ago, 2 minutes later, 2 days after the original post[^][v]#1,328,028
Besides the black circle and black rectangle, the middle dot and minus sign match each other’s positioning and relative size fairly well. However, they are difficult to see at ordinary font sizes. When double-bolded on a website text board, they are readable though small.
·−··−···−−−····−−−− no bold ·−··−···−−−····−−−− bold ·−··−···−−−····−−−− double bold
boof (OP) octuple-posted this 1 year ago, 1 day later, 4 days after the original post[^][v]#1,328,253
Wikipedia dots and bars representation:
The width of two dots placed next to each other with a space between them exactly matches the width of one bar. The space between two dots appears to be the same as the width of a dot, so the width of a dash is the same as the width of three dots. The spacing between any symbols within a coded letter is the width of a single dot. The dot height matches the bar height. In the article, both dots and dashes are made with the character U+2584 Lower Half Block [▄], one for a dot and three for a dash. The space character is U+0020 Space (SP) [ ], which is the ordinary space as seen with the use of the spacebar. Wikipedia places one space between any two symbols within a single Morse code letter, and three spaces between two letters.
I can’t make any dot and dash symbols exactly match the spacing that wiki achieves with the lower half block character.
boof (OP) nonuple-posted this 1 year ago, 4 days later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,328,983
Comparing character widths:
[ ] U+2003 Em Space
[—] U+2014 Em Dash
[▬] U+25AC Black Rectangle
[●] U+25CF Black Circle
[▬ ] Black Rectangle with a six-per-em space
[●●] Two black circles are a bit wider than one black rectangle with a six-per-em space.
The widths of em space, em dash, and black rectangle are the same. The black circle’s width, including built-in spaces that it has on each side, is more than half of the black rectangle’s width (about 60% of it).
The black circle appears to have 1/8 em space widths on its sides (the circle itself has about 1/3 em width). When appearing paired, the appearance is with 1/4 em space width between. Other spaces included would effectively add to the built-in spacings. The black rectangle has no space on its sides, itself taking up an entire em space width. When two black rectangles are next to each other, they appear as one double-length black rectangle, and so a space character is needed between them to see them as two black rectangles.
boof (OP) decuple-posted this 1 year ago, 10 minutes later, 1 week after the original post[^][v]#1,328,985
Comparing different spacing:
●●●● no space character
● ● ● ● U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space
● ● ● ● U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space
● ● ● ● U+2004 Three-Per-Em Space
● ● ● ● U+2002 En Space
▬▬▬▬ no space character
▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space
▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space
▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ U+2004 Three-Per-Em Space
▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ U+2002 En Space
●▬●▬ no space character
● ▬ ● ▬ U+2006 Six-Per-Em Space
● ▬ ● ▬ U+2005 Four-Per-Em Space
● ▬ ● ▬ U+2004 Three-Per-Em Space
● ▬ ● ▬ U+2002 En Space