Editing Dotted and dotless I in computing

{{Notability|date=June 2022}}
{{Lead too short|date=June 2022}}
[[File:Ectaco ML320 Turkish error.jpg|thumb|Error when displaying dotted ''İ'' as a dotless ''I'' while translating from Turkish to Polish|right]]
The Latin-derived letters dotted '''[[İ|İ i]]''' and dotless '''[[Dotless I|I ı]]''', which are distinct letters in the alphabets of a number of [[Turkic languages]], unlike in English and most languages using the Latin script, have caused some [[software bug|issues]] in computing.

==Difficulties==
{{Main|Dotless I|İ}}

Unicode does not encode the uppercase form of dotless I and lowercase form of dotted İ separately from their base letters, and instead merges them with the upper and lower case forms of the [[I|Latin letter I]] respectively. [[John W. Cowan|John Cowan]] proposed disunification of plain Ii as capital letter dotless I and small letter I with dot above to make the casing more consistent.<ref>{{Cite mailing list |url=https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML009/0619.html |title=Resolving dotted and dotless "i" |date=September 10, 1997 |mailing-list=unicode@unicode.org |last=Cowan |first=John}}</ref> The Unicode Technical Committee had previously rejected a similar proposal<ref>{{Cite mailing list |url=https://unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML009/0624.html |title=Re: Resolving dotted and dotless "i" |date=September 11, 1997 |mailing-list=unicode@unicode.org |last=Davis |first=Mark}}</ref> because it would corrupt mapping from character sets with dotted and dotless I and corrupt data in these languages.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

Most Unicode software uppercases ''ı'' to ''I'', but, unless specifically configured for Turkish, it lowercases ''I'' to ''i''. Thus uppercasing then lowercasing changes the letters. Likewise, most Unicode software uppercases ''i'' to ''I'', changing the letter in the process.

In the [[Microsoft Windows SDK]], beginning with [[Windows Vista]], several relevant functions have a NORM_LINGUISTIC_CASING flag, to indicate that for Turkish and Azerbaijani [[locale (computer software)|locales]], ''I'' should map to ''ı''.

In the [[LaTeX]] typesetting language the dotless ''ı'' can be written with the backslash-i command: <code>\i</code>.

Dotted ''İ'' and dotless ''ı'' are problematic in the Turkish locales of several software packages, including Oracle DBMS, [[PHP]], Java (software platform),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winchester |first=Joe |date=September 7, 2004 |title=Turkish Java Needs Special Brewing |url=http://java.sys-con.com/node/46241 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170726160048/http://java.sys-con.com/node/46241 |archive-date=2017-07-26 |access-date=2008-09-12 |website=JDJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schindler |first=Uwe |date=2012-07-11 |title=The Policeman's Horror: Default Locales, Default Charsets, and Default Timezones |url=https://blog.thetaphi.de/2012/07/default-locales-default-charsets-and.html |website=The Generics Policeman Blog |language=en}}</ref> and Unixware 7, where implicit capitalization of names of keywords, variables, and tables has effects not foreseen by the application developers.  The C or US English locales do not have these problems. The [[.NET Framework]] has special provisions to handle the 'Turkish ''i''{{'}}.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-09-13 |title=Writing Culture-Safe Managed Code: The Turkish Example |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms994325.aspx#cltsafcode_topic4 |website=msdn.microsoft.com |language=en}}</ref>

Many cellphones available in Turkey (as of 2008) lacked a proper localization, which led to replacing ''ı'' by ''i'' in [[short message service|SMS]], sometimes severely distorting the sense of a text. In one instance, a miscommunication played a role in the deaths of Emine and Ramazan Çalçoban in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Diaz |first=Jesus |date=2008-04-21 |title=A Cellphone's Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail |url=https://gizmodo.com/382026/a-cellphones-missing-dot-kills-two-people-puts-three-more-in-jail |access-date=2015-08-28 |website=[[Gizmodo]] |language=en}} The use of "i" resulted in an SMS with a completely twisted meaning: instead of writing the word "sıkışınca" it looked like he wrote "sikişince". Ramazan wanted to write "You change the topic every time you run out of arguments" (sounds familiar enough) but what Emine read was, "You change the topic every time they are fucking you" (sounds familiar too.)</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Orion |first=Egan |date=2008-04-26 |title=Cellphone Localisation Glitch Turned Deadly in Turkey – Dotted ''i'' Leads to Tragedy |language=en |work=[[The Inquirer]] |url=http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1017243/cellphone-localisation-glitch |url-status=unfit |access-date=2015-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102064618/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1017243/cellphone-localisation-glitch |archive-date=2010-01-02}}</ref> A common substitution is to use the character ''1'' for dotless ''ı''. This is also common in Azerbaijan (see also translit), but the meaning of words is generally understood.

In some [[Ectaco]] translators, the letter ''İ'' was also treated as ''I'' (e.g. ''TRAFIK'' {{angle bracket|traffic}}, when it is normally ''TRAFİK'').
{{charmap
|0049|name1=LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I
|0069|name2=LATIN SMALL LETTER I
|0130|name3=LATIN CAPITAL LETTER<br />I WITH DOT ABOVE
|0131|name4=LATIN SMALL LETTER<br />DOTLESS I
|map1=[[ISO 8859-9]]|map1char1=49|map1char2=69|map1char3=DD|map1char4=FD
|map2=[[ISO 8859-3]]|map2char1=49|map2char2=69|map2char3=A9|map2char4=B9
}}

==See also==
* [[African Reference Alphabet]], where a similar situation occurs, albeit with the serifs rather than the tittles.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*Tex Texin, [http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode/turkish-i18n.html Internationalization for Turkish: Dotted and Dotless Letter "I"], accessed 15 Nov 2005
*[http://haacked.com/archive/2012/07/05/turkish-i-problem-and-why-you-should-care.aspx/ The Turkish İ Problem and Why You Should Care | You've Been Haacked]

[[Category:Turkish language]]
[[Category:Software bugs]]