The Holidays Are for Special Characters

It’s that time of year when people come together to celebrate the holidays. Although most of my family is local, we all gather only during the holidays. And if your family is anything like mine, you have your fair share of odd ducks. There’s the born-again uncle, who will preach your ear off. There’s gramdpa, who has become a bit peculiar in his declining years. There’s the cousin, who needs to dial it down on the Ritalin. Then, there’s the other side of the family, who are Dutch. Don’t get me started on the Dutch; they are just too weird for words. Despite all their foibles and eccentricities, we love our families. Where else can you find such a colorful collection of special characters.

Speaking of special characters…. Sorry for the painful, cheesy segway.

As businesses grow internationally, and as languages commingle and borrow words from each other, we must be able to type diacritics and special characters that do not appear on our standard keyboards. Words and phrases that we use frequently, like résumé, café, cliché, über-, and à la carte require accented characters. Mathematical symbols and some punctuation are further examples of special characters.