This volume establishes the technical specifications and implementation requirements for the Unicode Standard Version 2.0, a universal character encoding system. The authors, representing the Unicode Consortium, provide the foundational framework for representing characters from all global languages and dialects using a two-byte encoding scheme. The text serves as the definitive manual for software engineers and developers tasked with creating internationalized applications that require consistent character representation across diverse computing platforms.

Experts recognize this text as the foundational documentation for the Unicode Standard, essential for understanding early internationalization efforts in software development. Readers frequently note the high level of technical density, as the book is intended primarily for implementers and systems architects.