On 07/09/2002 03:20:22 AM Asmus Freytag wrote:
[I'm coming late into the discussion; apologies if this ground has already
been covered.]
>OK. Here we go again. There is simply no way that one can
'typographically'
>ligate standard German without text (!) based control...
I wonder if language/writing system-dependent control isn't appropriate in
the case of German as well as, e.g., Turkish. For instance, in an OT font,
have default lookups to form ligatures, and then have rules specific to
German, just as one would for Turkish, that do not form liguatures by
default. In the case of Turkish, the reason for the default being not to
form ligatures has to do with the use of both dotted and dotless i. In the
case of German, the reason is different: it's not done by default since it
isn't appropriate for it to be done everywhere, and the contexts in which
it is appropriate can't realistically be captured in a font. The German
support in the font could still include the rlig lookups John has
suggested; and an intelligent app might even activate ligatures
automatically (like the SHY analogy Asmus mentioned) either by setting an
appropriate feature over the appropriate contexts or by inserting ZWJ into
strings at rendering time.
- Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
E-mail: <peter_constable@sil.org>
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