Maurice J Bauhahn asks:
>
> Rich McGowan mentions:
>
> > the Unicode encoding also has the advantage of delineating stack
> > boundaries nicely without "n-character look-around".
>
> Please elaborate what this means. I understand it to mean that if
> characters are encoded phonetically then (with Khmer) the stack (consonant
> cluster) would always begin with a consonant or an independent vowel.
I mean (VERY specifically for the Unicode Tibetan encoding ONLY) that given a
consonant you know by its range whether it is the top of a stack or elsewhere
in the stack without any look-ahead or look-behind. I can imagine that this
would be convenient for some purposes; perhaps for instance in finding
syllabic roots? I don't know...
And to make it clear, I don't necessarily think that was the OPTIMAL solution
for Tibetan, it is ONE solution, and since it has been encoded we should use
it as intended and not inconvenience all uses and implementers by suggesting
or ipmlementing anything else, even if the potential components of another
"style" are available in the codeset.
I also believe that NO OTHER Brahmic-derived or Indic-type script I know of
should EVER be encoded the way Tibetan was.
Rick
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