L2/03-263

From: "Matitiahu Allouche"
Subject:  [bidi] Re: Unicode Collation Algorithm: 4.0
Date: 08/18/2003 10:08 AM

I have submitted the following text on the Unicode Reporting form.

This report relates to the collation tables for Hebrew as displayed in
http://www.unicode.org/charts/collation/beta/chart_Hebrew.html

I have already formulated the following remarks in the past, but no action
has been taken, so I repeat them here.

1) Precedence of Dagesh over Final/non-Final: in the chart, the presence
or absence of Dagesh is a Secundary difference, while Final/non-Final is a
Tertiary difference.  This is relevant only for letters Kaf and Pe.  My
gut feeling says that Final/non-Final should have precedence over
Dagesh/no-Dagesh.
Note that the number of actual cases where this would make a difference is
probably *very* small.

2) There is something strange in the combinations of Shin with Dagesh and
dots: for all other letters, the form without Dagesh sorts before the form
with Dagesh.  But Shin with Sin/Shin dot sort after their corresponding
combinations with Dagesh.  I cannot imagine a justification for that.

I have submitted those reservations to the Technical Committee 2109 of the
SII (Standards Institution of Israel, the Israeli NB), which deals with
Hebrew-related standards in IT, and the committee endorsed my point of
view.  I can ask the committee to send you a confirmation letter if
required.

I would like to see some action taken on my remarks this time, or at least
some justified refutation.

Shalom (Regards),  Mati

       Bidi Architect
       Globalization Center Of Competency - Bidirectional Scripts
       IBM Israel
       Phone: +972 2 5888802    Fax: +972 2 5870333    Mobile: +972 52554160