RE: Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)

Thank you to Doug and to Asmus for replying.
 
Originally I was thinking of the format simply being so as to help to level the infrastructural ground as between a PUA (Private Use Area) application using left-to-right characters and a PUA application using right-to-left characters.
 
However, the research needs to proceed in the best direction so as to get the best possible result, so I am happy for my original idea to be augmented and changed if that is what is needed.
 
Do any people who would like to use PUA applications that use right-to-left characters have any views on a format please? Is such a format regarded as useful? What does it need to do?
 
What would be the features of a very minimal RTL constructed script that would exhibit all of the features for which a researcher might want to use the Private Use Area for research with a real-world RTL script please?
 
I am thinking of making a small font with some characters that consist of a leftward pointing arrow with a broad tail with the tail having markings to give a clue to the sound. These markings would be based on the hatching system used for representing colours in monochrome. For example, vertical lines for r because that is red or rouge, horizontal lines for b because that is blue or bleu. I thought of having an o as an o drawn with a left arrow attached to it. I could then produce a glyph for a br ligature and maybe a rb ligature. I am thinking that the ligature glyphs could be wider, have only one leftward pointing arrow yet have two types of markings on the tail of the arrow, side by side.
 
Would that and a space be enough for a constructed script that would exhibit the needed properties for a demonstration or would some more glyphs be needed?
 
My thinking is that the font, complete with its PUA.RTL assignment statement, could be a benchmark test font for testing a "special researcher's edition" of a wordprocessing application or a desktop publishing application. By using a font for a minimal constructed script, the task of producing and testing the "special researcher's edition" of a software application could be separated from the complexities of a full real script, perhaps therefore increasing the chances of the "special researcher's edition" of a software package being produced.
 
I feel that I could make the font as a TrueType font. In order to produce an OpenType font I would need to consolidate what I have started to learn about OpenType fonts, though I would be happy for the TrueType font to be adapted by other people if they so wish.
 
William Overington
 
24 August 2011
 
Received on Wed Aug 24 2011 - 08:41:03 CDT