From: P. T. Rourke (ptrourke@methymna.com)
Date: Fri Nov 08 2002 - 16:32:42 EST
>
>
>I like to think of the long s as similar to the final sigma. Nobody
>thinks that final sigma should be a presentation form of sigma.
>
>
Actually, I do, given an ideal encoding system without any compatibility
compromises. I think that the presence of the separate final and medial
sigma codepoints, and especially of the separate lunate sigma symbol,
will become a substantial normalization problem for Greek text. Too many
people creating Greek texts will use only the lunate sigma for both
medial and final, while the majority use the final for a terminal sigma
and the medial for a non-terminal sigma. So either there should only be
one sigma, with the presentation being determined by position (unless
the font defines both positions as lunate), or there should only be the
medial and terminal and no lunate "symbol," with lunate being defined
only by the font - but then most people entering Greek text would just
use the medial form for all sigmas, regardless of the position. Maybe
text entry could correct this . . .
But this opinion is pretty late in the game, isn't it? I just can't wait
for all the search failures resulting from searching for τις in a text
with τιϲ
Patrick Rourke
ptrourke@methymna.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 08 2002 - 17:06:40 EST