From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Mon Jan 19 2004 - 01:15:36 EST
At 09:23 PM 1/18/2004, jameskass@att.net wrote:
>Seriously, it's my understanding that implementation guidelines
>for Mongolian script and Unicode are still being worked out.
You are correct. A group of experts is currently working out a definite
description of how Mongolian should work.
All the issues have been identified so far and in most cases there's
no serious disagreement on the goals. The story is complicated by language
barriers, since Mongolian is used in both China and Mongolia, with the
Unicode related experts in the West.
The Chinese have a publication of the model that they consider the base
for the agreement underlying the encoding that is in Unicode. A capable
translation of this has only recently become available; it will greatly
aid in reviewing the understanding of the non-Chinese experts and implementers.
What's missing for Unicode is a comprehensive writeup that takes that
document into
account, settles some edge cases, accounts for the non-Mongolian languages
that use the script. That is what is currently being worked on.
Mongolian Free Variation Selectors are definitely needed. There are some
situations where context cannot determine the correct glyph shape, but creating
separate character codes would be an incorrect approach. It turns out that the
majority of such situations is in un-orthodox spellings and in showing the
shapes in isolation, which holds out the possibility that FVS are not going
to be heavily used in actual text.
A./
PS: if you need more information about the status of the work on documenting
Mongolian, pls. contact me offline.
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