From: James Kass (thunder-bird@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Sep 07 2007 - 20:30:30 CDT
Sinnathurai Srivas wrote,
> When you say "Tamil *writing* “க்ஷ” is given ... 0B95 + 0BCE + 0BB7"
> What happens to split form,
> What happens to X form
> and why is it given a conjunct treatment, when the natural conjunct equivalent is
> 0B95 + 0BCE + 0BB7 without any glyph shape variation.
>
> லக்ஷ்மி, லக்.ஷ்மி, றிக்.ஷா
> Luxmi, Lukshmi, Riksha
>
> We use all of these forms.
Am I understanding correctly?
The display above for the Tamil section looks correct and supports your
statement that all forms are used. It also appears that all forms are
supported with Unicode.
When you look at the Tamil "லக்ஷ்மி, லக்.ஷ்மி, றிக்.ஷா", there are
no conjuncts appearing in the display, because Tamil has no conjuncts.
Interpreting the visual Tamil text is best done in the minds of those
who use the script. It is not the job of Unicode to tell users how to
interpret their own writing system. Unicode also does not dictate
how input devices, like keyboard drivers, should be made.
What Unicode is supposed to do: Provide unique code sequences to handle
the various typographic elements of writing systems for storage and
exchange of plain-text on computers.
What Unicode does for Tamil users is to enable them to communicate
with each other using text, wherever they are, from any kind of
modern computer system.
There are so many talented Tamil engineers and developers who can
design input and display which is acceptable to Tamil users, using
the parameters defined by Unicode. Keyboard developers should
make appropriate mappings.
In Latin, the letter "W" is seen as a letter, not as a combination of
"V" plus some joiner character plus another "V". But, if the computer
encoding for "W" treated it as a string of three other characters, it
should not matter to users of the Latin script. Because the Latin script
user would always see "W" as a letter, in keyboards and in displays,
regardless of the binary string which is used to store and exchange
that letter "W". As long as the binary string is unique for the letter,
and can't be confused with any other letter, then Unicode is doing
its job well.
If the illogic of ISCII-based Tamil has been incorporated into Unicode,
then the leaders and pioneers in the fields of Tamil typography and
Tamil Unicode computing can educate other Tamil users about any
conceptual pitfalls, as well as provide workaround solutions, in order
to preserve the traditional logic of Tamil writing in the eyes and
minds of the beholders.
Best regards,
James Kass
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