Even if the ZWJ is stripped by the application before the actual low-level paint API is called, so that instead of
<lamed, qamets, ZWJ, hiriq, final mem>
the renderer just sees
<lamed, qamets, hiriq, final mem>
you still end up with the order you need to make the distinction.
Yes. That works. My biggest worry with the ZWJ is that it may affect positioning lookups; this requires some experiment.
Whatever solution is finally adopted, changing texts and fonts is relatively simple. Changing layout engines and applications is harder and takes longer. We're pretty much resigned to updating texts and fonts.
I'll discuss the ZWJ idea with our project partners, but if it does affect positioning lookups it is not something that will get adopted until that is resolved. The potential problem is that the ZWJ is used to so many different things now, it is difficult to know exactly what applications will do with it. If the intent, as in this instance, is simply to prevent character re-ordering, should we really be using something so loaded. Perhaps we need a control character specifically as a canonical order override: something with cc=0 but no other behaviour associated with it.
John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you browse in the shelves that, in American bookstores,
are labeled New Age, you can find there even Saint Augustine,
who, as far as I know, was not a fascist. But combining Saint
Augustine and Stonehenge -- that is a symptom of Ur-Fascism.
- Umberto Eco
