Re: Multiple Directions (was: Re: Coptic/Greek (Re: Phoenician))

From: jcowan@reutershealth.com
Date: Thu May 13 2004 - 15:33:51 CDT

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    E. Keown scripsit:

    > How did you decide that 'horizontal' is the default
    > direction? My impression is that 85 - 95% of *all*
    > elements of writing ever invented by humans are
    > Chinese (or other ..JKV...).

    That's irrelevant. L2R and R2L scripts are often mixed in the same
    sentence, whereas it's barely possible to mix horizontal and vertical
    scripts on the same page; when it must be done, the vertical script
    is generally rotated to become a L2R horizontal one (even Mongolian).
    A page that contained both Mongolian and vertical CJK might require
    a vertical bidirectional algorithm, but AFAIK that question has not
    yet arisen.

    > Does 'horizontal' actually come from hardware, not
    > software? Is it built into the computer screen?

    No, of course not.

    -- 
    John Cowan
            jcowan@reutershealth.com
                    I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin
    


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