From: Ted Hopp (ted@newslate.com)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 18:01:01 EDT
On Thursday, July 31, 2003 5:06 PM, John Cowan wrote:
> Ted Hopp scripsit:
> > 1. It corresponds to standard Hebrew grammar.
> > 2. It would be simple and easy to explain to users, edit, handle in
> > keyboards, etc.
>
> It would be no problem to have a "holam male" key that generated two
> consecutive Unicode characters.
True, but what about editing? Should a backspace delete both characters or
just one? Quite a dilemma: have the "right holam" combining character be
handled differently by the software from other combining characters (thus
adding to the job security of code maintainers) or have the "insert
character-backspace" sequence be a no-op (from a user's perspective) for all
keystrokes except holam male. Nasty. And avoidable.
> > 3. A combining mark for holam male would be applicable to a vav and only
to
> > a vav. It seems needlessly complicated and arcane to create a combining
mark
> > for the sole purpose of creating exactly one sequence that uses it.
>
> How would one encode an isolated aleph with a right holam over it, when
> explaining fine Hebrew typographical rules? The current context-dependent
> mechanisms are suitable for ordinary use of aleph with right holam,
> but not for cases like this, as far as I understand.
What is this with a right holam on an alef? There is no such thing. As
people have pointed out before, all such examples should be interpreted (and
encoded) as a holam haser combined with the consonant preceding the alef. It
certainly doesn't exist in isolation. The "right holam" is an invention of
this discussion. With a separate holam male character, the entire issue goes
away.
> > 4. A combining mark sequence would invite the creation of a new
presentation
> > form (or else changing the decomposition of FB4B).
>
> Neither of those things is going to happen. The UTC will not encode
> any new presentation forms, any new decomposable characters, or change
> any decompositions. Death before dishonor. :-)
A holam male character wouldn't be decomposable if there weren't a "right
holam" combining mark.
Ted
Ted Hopp, Ph.D.
ZigZag, Inc.
ted@newSLATE.com
+1-301-990-7453
newSLATE is your personal learning workspace
...on the web at http://www.newSLATE.com/
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