Over the years the Unicode standard encoding has been steadily expanded and now includes languages like Cherokee, Mongolian, and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Beyond simply providing a standardized system of character codes, the Unicode Consortium has expanded the scope of its efforts to include standard “locale” data, such as how a date is formatted in Arabic or Swahili, and code libraries that assist programmers to develop. Unicode was originally designed with the intent of transcending limitations present in all text encodings designed up to that point: each encoding was relied upon for use in its own context, but with no particular expectation of compatibility with any other. Indeed, any two encodings chosen were often totally unworkable when used together, with text encoded in one interpreted as garbage characters by the other. Most encodings had only been designed to facilitate interoperation between a handful of scripts—often primarily between a given script and Latin characters—not between a large number of scripts, and not with all of the scripts supported being treated in a consistent manner.