>What everyone has been implicitly assuming is that there can't be a means
of
>entering the digraph 'ie' directly into Maltese text...
That's irrelevant. As you point out, of course it's possible to create
input methods to enter whatever characters are needed (and, for that
matter, a single key might be able to enter a single Unicode character for
a digraph - if such exists, or a key sequence might be able to enter the
same digraph character even if the same keystrokes each produce different
characters when used separately).
>I agree with Peter that in general it is impossible to expect different
>languages to have the same sorting rules, etc. However, in the case of
>Maltese and English (and Italian, which forms the third major component of
>borrowed words) the collating conventions are fully compatible - if 'ie'
is
>handled well...
Meaning what? Meaning "if we have a digraph <ie> character added to
Unicode"? My point was that this request is as valid as *lots* of others.
The UTC does not want to open the doors for a flood of requests for
digraphs and precomposed characters, and rightly so: it would be a mess in
many respects. You're more likely to get a ZWGJ character, and that would
be adequate for the needs you mention. (Note: an input method can have a
single "ie" key that outputs <i><ZWGJ><e> as easily as outputting a single
<ie> character.)
- Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:21:06 EDT