At 09:41 11/10/2001, Arjun Aggarwal wrote:
>I just cannot see how a half character can be formed by adding a halant
>after full letters.It does not lead to a visible half letter. It is the
>visible half letter that we need here.
Have you bothered to read any of the online resources to which various
contributors have directed you?
See also: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/indicot/default.htm,
particularly the sections on how the Uniscribe shaping engine works and the
registered OpenType Layout features used in Indic fonts. This explains '
how a half character can be formed by adding a halant after full letters'.
On Windows 2000, using Office XP, I enter a Devanagari character from my
Hindi keyboard. I type the halant. I get a half form. I type the next
character. Depending on what that next character is, and the particular
font I am using, I may get a conjunct ligature at this point, or I may end
up with the half form followed by the full form of the second character (to
either of which results I can add another halant or a matra, changing the
shape again). And so on. This technology works.
>And though it is right that no one has a right to decide as to which method
>to use : "encoding half letters (and forming full letters by adding a
>danda) is *not* intrinsically worse than ISCII/Unicode idea of encoding
>full letters (and forming half letters by adding a halant) " . But since
>Devnagari has been used for a long time now and is being used as "encoding
>half letters and forming full letters by adding a danda " in every field
> in Typewriters , Hindi fonts, books, typography , defence , teaching ) ,
>this is the form that needs to be encoded in Unicode. There in no need to
>throw away 10 years of work. The half characters can be encoded in place of
>their full characters and a danda added in the code in a single reserved
>space in the series.
The technology you are describing is something that was forced onto the
Devanagari script by the limitations of typewriter technology. These are
the same limitations that all but obliterated the use of proper consonant
conjuncts, with the effect that many modern Hindi readers are so used to
texts that use only half forms and no traditional conjuncts that they are
unable to read older books. I have even heard it claimed that 'Hindi has
always used half-forms instead of conjuncts; conjunct forms are only for
Sanskrit' -- a claim that is proven to be nonsense by the venerable history
of printing Hindi in metal types *with* conjuncts.
John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com
I see this guy named Typography in the shower one morning,
the lightning bolt of epiphany striking as he rubs the suds from
his eyes, 'That's It! I'll redefine myself - she'll have to notice me!'
Dean Allen, www.textism.com
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