On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, Linguasoft wrote: > Thanks for your efforts to provide us with an experimental version of > the new standard keyboard layout for Persian !
You're welcome Peter. But please don't propagate it much, since that may be changed. > I tried the keyboard in Word2000/Win2000, using Arial Unicode MS which > displays all glyphs that can be generated via the keyboard except Riyal > sign and Subscript alef. Rial sign is Unicode 3.2. Subscript Alef is Unicode 4.0. Microsoft has not enough time to implement them for you. > I am not quite sure in which context standalone versions of maddah, > hamzah above and hamzah below are used, but assume they are there > because they are in the Unicode standard. They are not the standalone ones. These are *combining* Maddah, Hamza Above, and Hamza Below. But since these were only encoded in Unicode 3.0, and Windows/Office 2000 only handles pre-2.1 characters properly, they appear as standalones ones to you. Try the keyboard with SC Unipad, for example, and you'll see. > Standard shortcuts of Word for C, R, and T also work with the Persian > keyboard. Interesting news. I didn't know about them at all. > What does not work is Word's AutoCorrect option for "smart quotes", i.e. > neither quotation mark (U+0022) nor apostrophe (U+0027) are converted > into their "smart" equivalents; I wonder if this feature is > keyboard-(dll)-related but if it is, I suggest to implement it as well > as many users, especially in bilingual context, may want to use > typographically correct English quotation marks. We have no clue how to fix that even if that is a desired effect. For me, that would be undesired. The quotation mark and the apostrophe (and a few others) were only added to help manual entry of rich text (like TeX, XML, and HTML) in a text editor without having the need to switch the layout very often. > How would you input ZSNJ, and RTL/LTR markers with the new keyboard? > (These special characters aren't mentioned in keyboard.png as well.) What is ZSNJ? If you mean ZWNJ, it is Shift+B. I also don't know what you mean by RTL and LTR markers. If you mean the Bidirectional control characters, they are at AltGr+"9,0,I,O,P,[,]". > I also wonder whether there is any accepted standard to show alef > maqsura on keytops. In keyboard.png, you use an initial shape of ya > without dots which may be misleading; how about using isolated ya > without dots but with a superscript alef (I remember this was a keytop > inscription on a keyboard for an Arabic/Persian typesetting machine that > I use many years ago...) In a Persian context, you should only use Alef Maksura (a.k.a the dotless Arabic Yeh) only in initial and medial form. This is required when one needs to type a few Koranic quotes. An isolated Yeh without dots with a superscript Alef over it should be typed using the Persian Yeh and then a superscript Alef (D, Shift-V). > Are there any decisions as to support other regional languages such as > Kurdish or Azeri? The general attitude in the commitee is to support those languages if enough information is provided. We need to know about the exact list of characters each need, and their estimated frequency/importance. > If the ultimate goal is to support several languages using an "extended > Arabic" glyphset via one and the same keyboard, my feeling is that some > Shift or Alt key positions may have better been reserved for special > characters of these languages, or defined as deadkeys to create certain > "accented" characters (as in case of the US International keyboard). We are not trying an extended Arabic set. But we'd love a layout that is able to support all major minority languages of Iran, although optimized for Persian. We may even try to create layouts optimized for them if we can find the expertise. But we are not interested in Pashto, Sindhi, or Urdu at all, while we are very interested in Azeri, Kurdish, Baluchi, ... roozbeh _______________________________________________ FarsiWeb mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sharif.edu/mailman/listinfo/farsiweb
