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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">The file: <a href="http://aprs.org/symbols/symbolsX.txt">http://aprs.org/symbols/symbolsX.txt</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Has just been updated. No new symbols were actually added, but the dozen or so symbols made available for expansion back in 2007 are now more easily identified as AVAIL and there is an indicator to where those WX symbols were moved. This makes the annotation consistent between the above symbols file and the new 2007 proposals in <a href="http://aprs.org/symbols/symbols-new.txt">http://aprs.org/symbols/symbols-new.txt</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">For example: Alternate symbol D used to be Drizzle with 36 potential varieties of overlays made no sense. So in 2007, Drizzle was simply moved to be a D overlay on the general Precipitation symbol. Thus making the alternate basic symbol “D” and its 36 possible overlays available for a new family of 36 possible symbols (overlays).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Background:</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">In 2007, we proposed moving several WX symbols to overlays to free up hundreds of ICON space in the APRS spec. For example, it did not make sense to use up 11 of the possible 200 original APRS symbols just for different types of precipitation when instead we could have a single FAMILY called precipitation “P” and then have up to 36 possible varieties represented simply as overlays. And then let authors draw any matching symbols for the varieties within this family.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">These basic ALTERNATE characters then are now possibly available for new FAMILIES:</p><p class="MsoNormal">Bb{*:DFeGJp as well as the final three that were held in reserve: ZQ and possibly ] and }.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Although this opens up hundreds of possibilities, it must be noted that backwards compatibility demands that all future possibilities be constrained though, into only these 13 or so familiies. And that is it. So we must be very cautious and all-knowing and all-seeing with how we use up these last available families. And we will not use up any of these if a possible existing FAMILY can be used with a new overlay to represent some new request.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Again, this announcement simply cleans up the basic symbol list and new-symbol files to better show the openings.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Bob</p></div>
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