How much are emoji and non-ASCII used in Geminspace over all?

I'm currently trying to allow WebTVs to use Gemini, and one major limitation is that it only supports ASCII and a subset of Windows-1252. I'm can use Twemoji in my proxy to substitute emoji, and Unifont for other things in the basic multilingual plane.

How much stuff would that miss? Text presentation emoji-like things might be missed unless in the basic multilingual plane, and Twemoji likes turning text presentation characters into emoji.

Posted in: s/Gemini

🚀 Sgeo

Mar 29 · 7 weeks ago

3 Comments ↓

🛰️ lufte · Apr 03 at 18:28:

I think it's used a lot but nothing critical. What's a webtv anyway?

🕹️ nerd · Apr 04 at 08:35:

i second the question. whats webtv?

🚀 Sgeo [OP] · Apr 05 at 15:52:

WebTV was a device and ISP from the late 90s that allowed people to use the web from their TV, without a computer. It had a limited understanding of HTML and low resolution. But people could use emails, listen to music in the background as they surfed the web, etc.

There's a revival community that set up servers to replicate the service, which works with both the original boxes and with WebTV simulators that the company (and then Microsoft) provided to people.