From: N. Ganesan (naa.ganesan@gmail.com)
Date: Wed May 10 2006 - 06:06:40 CDT
Reading the Unicode 5.0 charts:
http://www.unicode.org/Public/5.0.0/charts/CodeCharts-5.0.0d1.pdf
http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/N3059.pdf
It is great that Balinese letters, a Pallava descendent, are getting
encoded.
(a)
Malayalam zero glyph is changing for good. Why is it not shown within
an yellow block? Is it because it's just a glyph change?
(b)
Very good to see Saurashtran script getting encoded.
This is used originally by a community of silk sari weavers
centered around Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. In Saurashtran
script we can see the impact Nagari as well as Tamil scripts'
principles. I agree with Prof. Peri. Bhaskararao's comments
on the need for positioning of Saurashtra letters in code chart
in parallel spots with major Indic scripts such as Devanagari,
Kannada, Tamil, Bangla, ....:
http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/sc2/WG2/docs/n2620.pdf
After all there are only very few actual users of this script,
and even Tamil whose collation order gave birth to Dravidian
Etymological Dictionary (DED) order is given a Sanskrit-type
model in Unicode. May be Saurashtran script is at an advanced
stage of encoding - it is just too difficult. But at least in the future hope
UTC considers the Brahmic harmonization of them with
major Indic scripts' model in place in Unicode.
Even Sinhala and Burmese scripts which are outside India proper
have been mentioned for Brahmic harmonization:
http://www.egt.ie/standards/si/si.html
http://www.evertype.com/standards/my/my.html
Atleast within modern India itself, Brahmic harmonization in the
future will be useful because all major scripts with potential
users running 100+ million users are enocoded in Unicode that way.
(c)
Also, saw 3 Malayalam fractions encoded. Even though they are
not used, fractions can be encoded for south Indian scripts.
The problem is that because there are lots more of fractions'
symbols than just 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 getting encoded in Malayalam.
Telugu, Kannada will have many fractions symbols too.
Tamil has some 25 fractions, and a host of other symbols.
Malayalam has a bunch of fractions as well, not just these 3.
The problem is if Unicode encoded just the 3 fractions
for Malayalam, the rest of fractions' symbols will not be
in ascending or descending order at all, there will be gaps.
So, a better solution will be to move the South Indian scripts'
fractions and symbols to a separate "South Indian Symbols"
page - Khmer symbols code-page is different from Khmer akshara-letters
code page:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U19E0.pdf
If a separate "South Indian Symbols" page is allocated,
there we can encode Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, ....
fractions in a continuous way - in ascending or descending order.
We can supply more Malayalam fractions, for example.
Comments are appreciated.
N. Ganesan
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