Hi all, I think it is an excellent idea for this project to have a global view of the already-proposed simplifications/improvements to the "standard" arabic script. This is an implementation-independent issue which will always be useful.
This project ( www.unifiedarabicalphabet.com ) clearly lies in this setting. I am **very** interested by having more info on this. I just wanted to mention an excellent review of some of these simplifications made some time ago by Mr. Yannis Haralambous which contains a historical introduction and a technical/typographical study. See his web page http://omega.enstb.org/yannis/, the specific article is : # �Simplification of the Arabic Script: Two Different Approaches and their # Implementations�, dans Electronic Publishing, Artistic Imaging, and # Digital Typography, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science 1375, # 1998, pp. 138-156. downloadable on the same page : http://omega.enstb.org/yannis/pdf/arabic-simpli98.pdf Lemine Abdallahi, On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 04:28:50AM +0200, Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj wrote: > On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 12:01:20 -0600, Camille K. Hedrick - UAAF > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Dear Abdulaziz: > > > > I found your Web site as I was conducting a search for "Unified Arabic" and > > "Nasri Khattar" on Google. I have begun to pick up the loose ends of my > > father's work on Unified Arabic--he passed away in Lebanon in 1998. > > I read the biography. Your father worked for Aramco. So did mine :-) > (he's retired now) > > > I now have a small Web site, www.unifiedarabicalphabet.com that I will soon > > be populating with additional information. I am also attaching two > > documents, a biography for my father, as well as a backgrounder on Unified > > Arabic. > > > > I would be very happy if you could add a link from your site to this Web > > site, called "Unified Arabic," under "Related Sites." Please let me know > > what you think of my request. > > Hmmm. The related sites section is not supposed to be a comprehensive > directory of every Arabization-related website out there, but is > merely to provide examples, like say, a LUG from each Arabic-speaking > country. But this is a non-issue, there are much better ways we can > cooperate I hope. > > The Arabeyes stance has more or less already been expressed in the > thread you saw[0]. We (well some of us really...) are strongly for a > Unified Arabic Alphabet, but as an option, not as a replacement for > cursive Arabic. The classical cursive Arabic simply cannot be done > away with, and we believe in this now much more than we did back in > 2002 which is when that thread was started. > > The reason for this is simple. Back then algorithms to implement > classical Arabic writing were poor/non-existent. Now, we can/do write > and read Arabic all the time on open source systems all the time, in > cursive, complete with diactrics/ligatures, and its truly a breeze. > The technology has in fact come a long way since then. > > This does not mean a UAA would not be useful. It will in fact be > extremely useful for the purpose of acronyms, as your website > mentions. But, how should UAA be implemented? Should it be implemented > as a font, whose glyphs simply are not joined, or should UAA > characters actually have their own internal encodings seperate from > the encodings of joinable characters? To put it simply, with the first > option the machine itself will not be able to see the difference > between a UAA character and a regular character, but with the second > option it will indeed be aware that they are different. > > <personal opinion> The second option will mean that UAA will be > useable side-by-side with the regular characters we use now on the > same document, even if that document is plain-text. You might even be > able to consider them as "Capital Case Arabic Letters ". However, I > think the second option will indeed meet resistance from many, > including the Unicode organization. Also, technical problems will > invariable arise from this option as well (searching will be > harder...)</personal opinion> > > Either of these options will be something to benefit from. Do please > try to publish/organize/further develop more of Mr. Khattar's work, > and put that information on the website please. [1] > > > Would you suggest that I join one of your mailing lists/discussion groups? > > If so, which one(s)? > > Indeed I do. The Announce list[2], which is extremely low-traffic, and > the General list[3], which is medium-traffic. I'm CCing the General > list with this reply, in fact. > > I wish to apologize for this late reply, and also thank you for the > work your putting together. I do hope we will be hearing from you > frequently on our mailing lists. > > Regards, > > Abdulaziz, > > P.S. I prefer plain-text attachements to Microsoft Words attachements. > Most of us here do not even have MS Word on their computers :-) . Do > please try to use alternatives to MS Word documents where ever you > can. > > P.P.S. Our wiki[4] portion of the website is currently down, but once > its up again your welcome to create a page there explaining about your > project. I think that would serve your purpose much better than a link > on our related sites section :-) > > References: > [0] http://lists.arabeyes.org/archives/general/2002/January/msg00027.html > [1] http://www.unifiedarabicalphabet.com > [2] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/announce > [3] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general > [4] http://wiki.arabeyes.org > _______________________________________________ > General mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general
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