Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 February 22

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February 22

Using special symbols like the Musical Symbols Unicode block

I was delighted to find that there is an entire unicode block dedicated to music symbols. But I'm unclear on what it means for a symbol to be part of unicode, and why I can't use them consistently. For example, I can use them in browser just fine, but I'd really like to use these symbols in Word and Excel. But they appear as those unsupported question squares. I've tried pasting, alt codes, etc with no luck at all.

I understand that any proposed standard like unicode has to rely on compliance, and software might just not implement everything. But I guess what I really find confusing is that my OS (Windows 10) clearly -has- these symbols. While using the same font I can use the symbols in a browser. It shouldn't be that hard to get MS Office to do it, should it? If someone could tell me if this is achievable and why or why not I'd appreciate it as I've researched this for over an hour now and hit a brick wall. 141.168.250.245 (talk) 02:14, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

I've made some progress on this problem on my own, which I'll put here in case it helps anyone. Basically, it seems like some Unicode symbols are obscure enough that almost no font bothers to draw them. And some software deals with this by falling back to it's own font that does (this is what my browser was doing). And some like MS Word deal with this by displaying a non-character (square/question mark).

You can sometimes find a font for the specific obscure Unicode you want to work with via the links page of the official Unicode website. But even then, some features might be unimplemented (the Musical Symbol Unicode block describes special characters that begin and end beams and that will dynamically attach to note stems, but the best font I found so far ("Musica") did not implement this).

Most of this is just what I've inferred so please correct me if I'm wrong in some way.

141.168.250.245 (talk) 06:30, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

This is broadly correct. To be a bit more precise: the musical symbols block is so obscure that almost no font designers have chosen to include them (no single font is able to include all unicode characters, for technical reasons). If you ask a browser to display the symbols in a font which doesn't have them, the browser will typically use font substitution to display them. Word does apparently include font substitution options which you can play around with; alternatively, you can ask Word to use one of the fonts which does have them. I don't use Word, but from a cursory look it seems that (as our font substitution article mentions) it replaces one font with another font, but not one missing symbol with one from another font. Henry^Flower 13:48, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

If you don't already know of it, you might be interested to learn about SMuFL. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:13, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Thank you Henry and Andrew for your replies. Your link Andrew lead me to the Bravura font which implements this different standard. SMuFL seems to be be more actively developed than the official unicode block. 141.168.250.245 (talk) 23:10, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Html link to open a folder on the computer

My html page can open a file on my PC when the link is file:///C:/filename.txt

How do I make it open a folder?

Thanks.

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 07:10, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

file:///C:/Folder/ should work. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 07:23, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Ah, and so it does! Thank you Graeme. Hope you're well. my friend. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 07:29, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Facts or bias unlearned opinions?

Hello all at Wikipedia,

I have a question that I would like to clarify please. Are my FACTUAL contributions and personal input as valuable to evolution as all others?

there are individuals who contribute things that i can't and the reverse is also true I would have thought.

also if i ask for help in this life and never get it from anywhere then perhaps offering help should be removed from a "say it but don't mean it" sort of society that has evolved this time round.

--Lkskwlkr (talk) 09:05, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

@Lkskwlkr: I don't usually look at the Reference desk, but I am interested in trying to help you. The problem is that it's very unclear what you are asking.

In fact, Wikipedia cannot use your "factual contributions and personal input" unless they are properly summarizing what reliable sources (which don't have to be online necessarily) say about a subject. While we may have views about facts and logical arguments, we are supposed to restrain ourselves to writing only what can be supported by referencing published information that an interested reader (perhaps with the help of a good library) can look up and verify for themselves. This is not the place where you could first publish your solution to the universal quantum equation. Only after it has been published in a reputable scientific journal, and some other scientists have written about it, would it be possible to write about it on WP. — jmcgnh^{(talk) (contribs)} 11:20, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Conflict on corporate social media

See also: fr:Intellipedia § Critiques

Hi,

I'm looking for cases (other than James Damore) of conflicts, controversies or edit warring on enterprise social software or corporate wikis.

Also, I'm looking for general information on conflict management or moderation on these internal sites; more specifically, I'm interested in actual or potential conflict between various authorities (the employee's usual chain of command, sysadmins in charge of the corporate networks and computers, and the moderators (whether officially appointed by the corporation or informally chosen by the user community))

Thanks. Apokrif (talk)

• Added: here is a very vague mention of "less than civil" "discourse" on Google internal network. Apokrif (talk) 13:48, 19 March 2018 (UTC)
• Added: [1]: "In an interview, the Wiki manager involved in the U.S. Coast Guard's Logistics Information Management System (LIMS) program recalled that he had to ban one single user, because he was pushing his own agenda instead of adding value to the designated content areas." Apokrif (talk) 02:30, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
• Added: [2] (about Intelink). Apokrif (talk) 00:51, 18 September 2018 (UTC)
• Added: [3] (Kevin Cernekee)
• Added: page 17 of Professional Wikis by Mark S. Choate Apokrif (talk) 03:30, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
• Added: https://www.wired.com/2017/03/intellipedia-wikipedia-spies-much/: "When people contested facts in the discussion section, things got hairy. "This is tribal warfare," Meyerrose says." Apokrif (talk) 13:02, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
• Added: "Google to Tone Down Message Board After Employees Feud Over War in Gaza"

For your secondary request there is the huge field called Conflict management and/or Mediation. Its a profession "in its own right" so it may be a challenge to get an overview of all methodes and approaches. --Kharon (talk) 23:50, 22 February 2018 (UTC)