Re: [OT] multilingual support in MS products (was Re: Kurdish ghayn)

From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 2003 - 17:19:05 EDT

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    At 10:58 AM 4/28/2003, John M. Fiscella wrote:

    >Then how is the difference between <i><j> and <ij> distinguished in
    >plaintext?

    I think the point is that there is no distinction to be made in plain text.
    As Tom pointed out, despite all the special handling required in sorting,
    hyphenation, casing (and, I would add, letterspacing), /IJ/ 'must remain
    equivalent with I+J'. In plain text, this equivalency is all that matters,
    which is why I don't believe the /IJ/ and /ij/ characters are necessary at
    all. If the Dutch treated /IJ/ and /I/+/J/ differently at any time, there
    might be an argument for separately encoding them, but they don't: /IJ/
    always and everywhere equals /I/+/J/, ergo there is not need for separate
    characters.

    John Hudson

    Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
    Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com

    As for the technique of trimming the nib,
    Do not be greedy!
    I will not reveal its nuances; I withhold its secrets.
                       - Ibn al-Bawwab, Ra'iyyah



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