Add a disclaimer never to use replacement characters in variant descriptions published anywhere

[ifokkema]

I'd like to suggest adding a disclaimer to the README, warning never to use any of these replacement characters in variant descriptions shared or published outside of local systems. If the issue is naming files and folders, no harm is done by replacing characters with similar-looking Unicode characters. However, using Unicode characters in variant descriptions shared in emails, websites, papers, or databases causes all kinds of issues. The only parser able to recognize similar-looking Unicode characters is the LOVD HGVS syntax checker; all other tools will be unable to process the variant description. Also, simple string matching won't work, so no resource will be able to match variant descriptions with Unicode characters. Finally, some of the replacement characters mentioned in the paper don't even render as intended in popular fonts. Table 1 contains several characters that render as boxes on my system (FF on Ubuntu 24.04.3):

Disclaimer: Although I'm a member of the HGVS Variant Nomenclature Committee (HVNC), this issue should not be considered a formal reply from the committee to your publication.

[BissonTom]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback and for taking the time to point out the potential problems caused by using visually similar Unicode characters in variant descriptions. This kind of exchange is exactly what we were hoping for.

We fully agree that such characters should not be used in variant descriptions shared outside of local, internal systems, and we have added a clear disclaimer to the manuscript to emphasize that our proposal is strictly limited to file- and directory-based workflows.

Regarding the rendering issues you observed in Table 1: these were unfortunately introduced in the online-ahead-of-print version. The print and final online versions display these characters correctly.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any further suggestions.