Note on links and report versions (WGRS)

Note on links and report versions

Reports on individual languages/scripts are continuously updated and released as parts of newer versions of the report. Because there are frequent links from other sites to particular romanization systems, it would be beneficial to keep the links working and directing always to the newest available version.

Therefore a link structured as http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/romN_LC.pdf (or .htm) where N is either 1 (UN adopted systems) or 2 (others), and LC refers to the 2-letter language code in ISO 639, will always make a link to the most recent version of the romanization system. (This could be changed only if a new system would be adopted by the UN Conference, in which case N will be 1, not 2.)

Older versions of that same system are archived into folders with version names preceding the file name, e.g. http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/v1_3/romN_LC.htm (i.e., Version 1.3).

PDF and HTML versions of romanization systems

In order to facilitate access to romanization systems and for processing the information more readily, it has been considered useful to provide users with HTML versions of the romanization systems, in addition to the PDF versions published earlier. Conversion into HTML versions was completed in September 2007, and since then all romanization systems will be available in PDF and HTML versions.

Users should be aware that the texts of the PDF and HTML versions are not identical, although the main content is unchanged. In case of discrepancies the PDF version should always be considered as the primary, or official version.

The HTML versions differ from their PDF counterparts mainly in the following.

As it is technically difficult (and not always reliable) to display combining diacritical marks (incl. abbreviated vowel characters in Indic scripts) in Unicode-compatible environment, the combining marks are usually shown as attached to another, typically consonant character; sometimes the wording has been altered in order to avoid showing the combining mark independently.
In cases where glyph variations were not catered for in the ISO 10646/Unicode standard, the wording was altered to refer to the glyphs presented in the PDF version (that was the case particularly with Malayalam).

Significant deviations from PDF versions are marked with an asterisk (*). Whether one is able to view the non-Roman scripts correctly or not in an HTML version, depends also on the configuration of the receiving computer (operating system, available fonts, versions of Uniscribe, etc.). Users should also be warned that some aspects of encoding non-Roman scripts are still open for discussion and might be changed in the future.