Salaam Nadim, > Can we pursue a 2-pronged approach, > > 1. Patch the current technology using today's > existing framework > (ie. the sub-optimal definitions and character > sets) by adding > the proposed characters.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), with Unicode there is no "short-term" solution to encoding problems. Once a proposal to add new characters is presented to the Unicode community, it may take more than a year before it is actually added to the Unicode standard (this is due to numerous long discussions that have to take place on the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list, and then it also has to pass through the actual commitee that will approve the character addition), and than more time before the new character is adopted by the font industry. So in reality, I don't believe that there really is any "short-term" solution in terms of Unicode - character addition and subsequent adoption is a process that can take years. The one short-term solution that I can see is to utilize the Unicode "private use areas" to add the new proposed characters. That can happen pretty quickly I believe. > As noted, I view step-2 as a longterm solution but > we continue to need > the proposed characters (or subsets there-of and/or > additional characters) > based on existing technologies to at a minimum > attempt to standardize on > something until step-2 is adopted and is rolled out. As said above the rolling out of step-1 and reaping the benefits of this rollout is something that may take multiple years in the first place. > Does that sound reasonable ? I realize step-1 might > be loathed and/or > viewed as a waste of time and effort, but for a > interim solution it seems > like a plausible short-term answer. If you wish you can post the new characters in the Unicode private use areas and that would be an interim solution. But before you add those characters to the private use area, please consider that many of those character additions may not be even necessary in the first place. And hopefully we will continue discussing this on this Quran proposal discussion thread. Best Regards, Mete _______________________________________________ General mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general
