L2/05-070

Subject: Indic Ad-Hoc meeting notes
Date: March 8, 2005
Source: Rick McGowan

Ad Hoc agenda items:

    1. Review of proposed characters
	a - items we would like proposals on
	b - items that we need more info on
	c - items already representable in the standard
	d - dandas

    2. Teleconference sync with India at least 4 weeks before UTC
	- Docs posted ahead 2 weeks prior to UTC meetings
	- Lisa Moore & Cathy Wissink to schedule time at the UTC for
	  teleconference, based on the documents submitted
	- Dr Vikas to coordinate in India with 4 centers (e.g.,
	    Skype connections, etc. Note that Skype needs a good
		broadband connection)
	- create a small, dedicated closed email list to discuss
		specific topics.
	- Dedicated liaison: It was recommended that Manoj Jain
		be appointed liaison. As such, he can be the
		point-person to keep track of upcoming deadlines.

    3. Educational workshops
	- "teach the teachers"
	- How to use Unicode
	    * Indian presence in Berlin
	    * Eric Muller tutorial to be turned into UTN
	    * addition of Educator's page to Unicode site

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1.d. Dandas
    Evidence needed for:
	* plain text requirement
	* shapes unacceptably different
	* consequences for implementation
	  and data for each case that is to be proposed

2. Pre UTC meeting routine
    1. ad hoc discussion
    2. doc submission
    3. UTC meets

1. Review of proposed characters. Page-by-page through L2/05-063

Started with the "Awaiting Updates" section of L2/05-063.

Four Sindhi implosives. India to prepare proposal for adding 4 chars. Note that if these are approved, the text in TUS needs to be changed: (p. 231) "several implosive Cs in Sindhi are realized as combinations with nukta and U+0952 DEVANAGARI STRESS SIGN ANUDATTA". (This text might need to be changed in any event, replacing "and" with "or.")

Three "Laukik Sanskrit" symbols. These should be discussed along with the larger set of Vedic accents.

Devanagari currency sign is already representable by "Ra + U-sign + abbreviation sign". Many currency signs are simple combinations of letters, e.g. sFr for Swiss Franc. Would need to establish that the proposal has a unique shape. Can add as named sequence.

Proposed changes in glyphs for NNNA, RRA, and LLLA (Marathi). India needs to establish how these are encoded in ISCII now. If this is a disunification, then there could be problems. Investigation needed.

Bengali Ya-Phalla has been rejected by UTC already. No contrasting difference was shown that couldn't already be represented in the standard.

Proposed a possible tech note on languages using the same script to cover items like Bengali KSHA. Use font or language tagging to express this allograph. It should not be encoded separately. 

Oriya Vowel sign vocallic RR. UTC just needs a detailed proposal for this. It is a good candidate for encoding; no problems foreseen.

Three Gujarati fraction signs. UTC has already requested more detail and sent letter to Manoj Jain requesting specific information. India to submit revised, detailed proposal.

Nine proposed Gurmukhi additions ("Pari" letters and Half-YA). Gurmukhi Pari RA and HA: more info needed. For the other 7, named sequences could be added to the standard.

Telugu sign Nukta. Good candidate for encoding, but needs a full, detailed
proposal to be submitted by India.

Telugu Avagrah. Is this just use of the Devanagari one? Evidence is needed on how it differs from the Devanagari one, if it is proposed for encoding. Detailed proposal would then be needed.

Tamil. Encoding of 313 syllables has been twice rejected by UTC. Previous decisions are in the UTC record. These could be added as named sequences Arabic Letter BAT. This *may* be related to (or same as) a arecent Pashto addition, so those documents should be looked up and research done. India to do more research. If needed, a proposal could be submitted for this.

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Action Items for ad hoc members:

Om Vikas: provide a set of names of experts for a closed Indic subcommittee mail list for discussions.

Editorial Committee: New "educator" page on Unicode web site with pointers to tutorials, tech notes, and other information.

Editorial Committee: Consider changing text on p. 231.

Eric Muller - See about making tutorial into a UTN.

Mark Davis: Letter to Dr Vikas re proposed India Globalization conference set-up in India.

Rick McGowan: Send note to Manoj Jain encouraging him to attend the Berlin conference.

Peter Constable - to write a UTN on languages using the same script.

Michael Everson needs to provide India with examples of what constitutes a well-formed proposal.