Unicodei

Unicodei is a proposed character encoding concept described in academic and speculative literature as an alternative or extension to the Unicode standard. Unlike Unicode, which assigns abstract code points to characters, Unicodei envisions a multilayered encoding in which each symbol can be associated with a base code point, variant metadata, and contextual annotations. The project remains informal and has no official status.

Origins and goals: The idea emerged in discussions around encoding historic scripts, regional variants, and glyph-level information. Proponents argue that Unicode's code point model can be complemented by a metadata layer to capture ligature behavior, typographic features, and semantic roles without inflating the base code space. In proposals, Unicodei aims for backward-compatible mappings to Unicode and an extensible metadata model for script-specific needs.

Technical overview: The model posits a layered space: a primary code point space for abstract characters, plus optional metadata blocks that describe glyph variants, ligatures, directionality, and typographic behavior. Implementations would rely on mapping tables to Unicode for interchange, along with tooling to preserve Unicode compatibility while enabling richer annotation in native environments.

Status and reception: Unicodei has not been standardized by any major standards body and remains exploratory. It has seen limited implementation in prototype software and theoretical works, and is generally cited in discussions about the limits of the Unicode model rather than as a practical successor.