Please also look at the Indic FAQ page http://www.unicode.org/unicode/faq/. Other FAQ pages may also be helpful.
Note that the Unicode Standard is online on the Unicode site, so if you don't have a copy you can read it there. Mark ————— Δός μοι ποῦ στῶ, καὶ κινῶ τὴν γῆν — Ἀρχιμήδης [http://www.macchiato.com] ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2001 01:21 Subject: Re: No proper representation of Devnagari in Unicode > At 00:22 11/1/2001, Arjun Aggarwal wrote: > > >The Unicode character set in it's current form does not support Devnagari > >well.It has no half characters for the Devnagari script. > >It is just like not having e a d f in the roman(latin) script. > > > >This particular aspect renders it useless to be used by anyone including > >programmers. > > Please read the section of the Unicode Standard regarding shaping of Indic > scripts in general and Devanagari in particular. Half-forms do not need to > be encoded because they are handled at the glyph processing level, rather > than at the character level. So, for example, the Unicode character that is > used to encode the consonant 'ga' is rendered appropriately as a full-form, > half-form or as part of a conjunct ligature depending on the context and > the glyphs and layout features available in a particular font. This glyph > shaping is handled by intelligent fonts, working with complex script > engines at the system or application level. These fonts contain > substitution and positioning lookups that render the correct forms and > position diacritic marks correctly; the best known formats are OpenType > (MS, Adobe) and AAT (Apple, formerly known as GX). > > The full-form glyphs that are used to represent consonant characters in the > Unicode charts are simpy representative of the abstract character and do > not imply that this specific form only is encoded. > > John Hudson > > Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com > Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > 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 > > >
