MdC analysis for Unicode Repertoire Extensions

As part of discussions on expanding the hieroglyph repertoire in Unicode it is useful to be able to inspect existing digital documents in Manuel de Codage (MdC) format. I've therefore made a web app available for this purpose: MdC analysis for Repertoire Extensions.

Most users of MdC will probably find the app instructive, whether interested in Unicode developments or not.

MdC methods of encoding Egyptian hieroglyphs have been around for over 25 years. MdC has proved by far the most popular method of digitally encoding hieroglyphic for publishing and database-type applications.

One complication is the fact that MdC was never technically defined in detail and work on the system appears to have stopped after the publication of the second edition of Hieroglyphica (2000) and before documentation was made available online. Therefore, several interpretations, extensions, variations and subsets of MdC are in existence (e.g. WinHiero, JSesh 5.5, WinGlyph and InScribe 2004). The web app attempts to be fairly permissive on what variation of MdC is analysed.

There is something of the chicken and the egg about releasing an app before there is a clear vision of the first expansion of the Unicode hieroglyph set. Bear that in mind.

I hope to evolve and improve the app over the next few months so feel free to send feedback via www.egpz.org.

Bob Richmond