RE: Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)
Thank you to Doug and to Asmus for replying. Originally I was thinking of the format simply being so as to help to level the infrastructural ground as between a PUA (Private Use Area) application using left-to-right characters and a PUA application using right-to-left characters. However, the research needs to proceed in the best direction so as to get the best possible result, so I am happy for my original idea to be augmented and changed if that is what is needed. Do any people who would like to use PUA applications that use right-to-left characters have any views on a format please? Is such a format regarded as useful? What does it need to do? What would be the features of a very minimal RTL constructed script that would exhibit all of the features for which a researcher might want to use the Private Use Area for research with a real-world RTL script please? I am thinking of making a small font with some characters that consist of a leftward pointing arrow with a broad tail with the tail having markings to give a clue to the sound. These markings would be based on the hatching system used for representing colours in monochrome. For example, vertical lines for r because that is red or rouge, horizontal lines for b because that is blue or bleu. I thought of having an o as an o drawn with a left arrow attached to it. I could then produce a glyph for a br ligature and maybe a rb ligature. I am thinking that the ligature glyphs could be wider, have only one leftward pointing arrow yet have two types of markings on the tail of the arrow, side by side. Would that and a space be enough for a constructed script that would exhibit the needed properties for a demonstration or would some more glyphs be needed? My thinking is that the font, complete with its PUA.RTL assignment statement, could be a benchmark test font for testing a special researcher's edition of a wordprocessing application or a desktop publishing application. By using a font for a minimal constructed script, the task of producing and testing the special researcher's edition of a software application could be separated from the complexities of a full real script, perhaps therefore increasing the chances of the special researcher's edition of a software package being produced. I feel that I could make the font as a TrueType font. In order to produce an OpenType font I would need to consolidate what I have started to learn about OpenType fonts, though I would be happy for the TrueType font to be adapted by other people if they so wish. William Overington 24 August 2011
Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)
On Monday 22 August 2011, William_J_G Overington wjgo_10...@btinternet.com wrote: Would a third option work? In the Description section of the Macintosh Roman section of a TrueType font, include a line of text in a plain text format of which the following line of text is an example. PUA.RTL=$E000-$E1FF,$E440-$E447,$E541,$E549,$E57C,$EA00-$EA0F,$EC07; One could specify precisely which Private Use Area characters were to become RTL when using that particular font. One would need rendering software that looked for such a string of text in the font file, yet, as far as I am aware, no approval from any committee in order to put this solution into practical use. Thinking further on this, I am putting forward the following suggestion for discussion, in the hope that it might be of use. Suppose that a a special researcher's edition of a wordprocessing application or a desktop publishing application at start up looks in a specified directory for a file with the following file name. pua_major.txt If pua_major.txt exists, then it is opened and it is searched for a PUA.RTL assignment statement. If a PUA.RTL assignment statement is not found in the file, it is taken as if the following had been included in the file. PUA.RTL=; If pua_major.txt is found, then that is an end of the searching process and no search for PUA.RTL would take place in a font file. If pua_major.txt is not found, then the application looks in a specified directory for a file with the following file name. pua_minor.txt If pua_minor.txt exists, then it is opened and it is searched for a PUA.RTL assignment statement. If a PUA.RTL assignment statement is not found in the file, it is taken as if the following had been included in the file. PUA.RTL=; Also, if the file is not found, the PUA.RTL assignment statement is taken as the following. PUA.RTL=; However, the value of PUA.RTL thus determined would be kept in reserve and only used if there were no PUA.RTL assignment statement in the font that is being used. This method would allow the choice of where to specify right-to-left directionality for some Private Use characters to be made either as being in a font file or in a text file, with the choice of whether the text file is an override or a backup of any such information within a font. Would such a format solve the needs of those who want to use right-to-left Private Use characters? If not, could people say what other features are needed please in the hope that a suitable system can be specified by consensus within this thread? William Overington 23 August 2011
RE: Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)
William_J_G Overington wjgo underscore 10009 at btinternet dot com wrote: Suppose that a a special researcher's edition of a wordprocessing application or a desktop publishing application at start up looks in a specified directory for a file with the following file name. pua_major.txt If pua_major.txt exists, then it is opened and it is searched for a PUA.RTL assignment statement. If a PUA.RTL assignment statement is not found in the file, it is taken as if the following had been included in the file. PUA.RTL=; ... Of all applications, a word processor or DTP application would want to know more about the properties of characters than just whether they are RTL. Line breaking, word breaking, and case mapping come to mind. I would think the format used by standard UCD files, or the XML equivalent, would be preferable to making one up: E100;ENGSVANYALI LETTER P;Lo;0;R;N; E101;ENGSVANYALI LETTER B;Lo;0;R;N; E102;ENGSVANYALI LETTER M;Lo;0;R;N; ... -- Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 www.ewellic.org | www.facebook.com/doug.ewell | @DougEwell
Re: Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)
On 8/23/2011 7:22 AM, Doug Ewell wrote: Of all applications, a word processor or DTP application would want to know more about the properties of characters than just whether they are RTL. Line breaking, word breaking, and case mapping come to mind. I would think the format used by standard UCD files, or the XML equivalent, would be preferable to making one up: The right answer would follow the XML format of the UCD. That's the only format that allows all necessary information contained in one file, and it would leverage of any effort that users of the main UCD have made in parsing the XML format. An XML format shold also be flexible in that you can add/remove not just characters, but properties as needed. The worst thing do do, other than designing something from scratch, would be to replicate the UnicodeData.txt layout with its random, but fixed collection of properties and insanely many semi-colons. None of the existing UCD txt files carries all the needed data in a single file. A./
RE: Designing a format for research use of the PUA in a RTL mode (from Re: RTL PUA?)
Asmus Freytag asmusf at ix dot netcom dot com wrote: The right answer would follow the XML format of the UCD. Question: Since the ucdxml formats became available, has any consensus emerged as to whether the flat or grouped formats are preferred? Obviously they both contain the same data, but one is much smaller and the other might be more convenient in some ways. -- Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 www.ewellic.org | www.facebook.com/doug.ewell | @DougEwell
