Unicode CLDR v41 Alpha available for testing

The Unicode CLDR v41 Alpha is now available for testing. The alpha has already been integrated into the development version of ICU. We would especially appreciate feedback from non-ICU consumers of CLDR data. Feedback can be filed at CLDR Tickets.

Alpha means that the main data and charts are available for review, but the specification, JSON data, and other components are not yet ready for review. Some data may change if showstopper bugs are found. The planned schedule is:

• Mar 09 — Beta (data)
• Mar 23 — Beta2 (spec)
• Apr 06 — Release

CLDR v41 is a limited-submission release. Most work was on tooling, with only specified updates to the data, namely Phase 3 of the grammatical units of measurement project. The required grammar data for the Modern coverage level increased, with 40 locales adding an average of 4% new data each. Ukrainian grew the most, by 15.6%.

The tooling changes are targeted at the v42 general submission release. They include a number of features and improvements such as progress meter widgets in the Survey Tool.

Finally, the Basic level has been modified to make it easier to onboard new languages, and easier for implementations to filter locale data based on coverage levels.

The following table shows the number of Languages/Locales in this version. (See the v41 Locale Coverage table for more information.)

Level	Languages	Locales	Notes
Modern	89	361	Suitable for full UI internationalization
Moderate	13	32	Suitable for full “document content” internationalization, such as formats in a spreadsheet.
Basic	22	21	Suitable for locale selection, such as choice of language in mobile phone settings.
Total	124	414	Total of all languages/locales with ≥ Basic coverage.

Beyond the member organizations of the Unicode Consortium, many dedicated communities and individuals regularly contribute to updating their locales, including:

• Modern: Cherokee, Cantonese, Scottish Gaelic, Sorbian (Lower), Sorbian (Upper)
• Moderate: Asturian [nearly Modern], Breton, Faroese, Fulah (Adlam), Kaingang, Nheengatu, Quechua, Sardinian
• Basic: Bosnian (Cyrillic), Interlingua, Kabuverdianu, Māori, Romansh, Tajik, Tatar, Tongan, Uzbek (Cyrillic), Wolof

Unicode CLDR provides key building blocks for software supporting the world’s languages. CLDR data is used by all major software systems (including all mobile phones) for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages.

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Over 144,000 characters are available for adoption to help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages

Unicode 15.0 Alpha Review

The repertoire for Unicode 15.0 is now open for early review and comment. During alpha review the repertoire is reasonably mature and stable, but is not yet completely locked down. Discussion regarding whether certain characters should be removed from the repertoire for publication is welcome. Character names and code point assignments are reasonably firm, but suggestions for improvement may still be entertained.

This early review is provided so that reviewers may consider the character repertoire issues prior to the start of beta review (currently scheduled to start in late May, 2022). Once beta review begins, the repertoire, code points, and character names will all be locked down, and no longer be subject to changes.

Feedback for the alpha review should be reported under PRI #442 using the Unicode contact form by April 5, 2022.

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Over 144,000 characters are available for adoption to help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages

Enhancements to Unicode Regular Expressions

A new revision of UTS #18, Unicode Regular Expressions is now available.

Regular expressions are a key tool in software development. Back in 2000, few regular expression engines supported Unicode, even at a basic level. UTS #18 set out to raise the bar, describing how regular expression engines could be adapted to deal with Unicode correctly and completely. Since that time, major programming languages and libraries have adopted level 1 features (supporting all Unicode literals, basic character properties, subtraction, intersection, ...), and some also adopted some level 2 features (full character properties, grapheme clusters, ...).

The main focus in this release is on handling the complement of properties of strings. The distinction is drawn between code point complement and full complement, followed by explicitly defining the complement operator [^...] to be code point complement, and providing the reasons for doing so in an annex. The important difference between [A--B] and [A&&[^B]] is outlined — setting out the reasons why the latter is insufficient to represent set difference.

For the EBNF in general, and for character classes with strings in particular, examples were added and the text clarified. A new annex provides examples for how character classes can be parsed.

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Over 144,000 characters are available for adoption to help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages