Why isn't the external link symbol in Unicode? (2018)

Re:Why isn't the external link symbol in Unicode? (2018) by qqn on Thursday April 30, 2020 @11:40AM (#23032065)

On the other hand, I used to use both "play" and "link" symbols in past resumes, where I could have really used a proper link symbol. Ideally I wanted something universally known, but the box with an arrow that Wikipedia used wasn't as well known then, and was always a small image and not available as a character. I opted for the interlinked chain links symbol instead.

I would propose updating this SMS sniff test to a Wikipedia sniff test.

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Re:Why isn't the external link symbol in Unicode? (2018) by TeMPOraL on Thursday April 30, 2020 @06:51PM (#23037168)

FWIW, interlinked chain links symbol is in the Unicode. And it's been the widely used symbol for hyperlink. The box-with-arrow one is a symbol for external link, which is a concept that matters only in few contexts, and which was usually displayed with a globe icon (also in Unicode).

I explicitly don't want it to be "Wikipedia sniff test", because that's equivalent to a "Webpage sniff test", which is equivalent to "anything goes", because icon fonts exist now and are used.

That said, other comments made me realize that Unicode is better described as "whatever was there in all the codepages around the world at the time of bootstrapping the Unicode standard" plus what's typically used in a written language, plus SMS sniff test.

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