From: Ernest Cline (ernestcline@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Mar 24 2004 - 16:59:52 EST
> [Original Message]
> From: Kenneth Whistler <kenw@sybase.com>
>
> Is Moon Type in actual use, or just a historical curiosity? William
> Moon was a 19th century figure.
Yes, it is still in use, altho mainly in the UK. It is reportedly easier
for those who have lost their sight to learn Moon Code than Braille,
and also there also some who were born blind and with learning
handicaps as well who are able to use Moon Code but not Braille.
> In its intended use, for embossed writing for the blind, Moon
> Type could not be mixed with anything else. But, of course,
> metatexts *about* Moon Type, like that website, can and do
> mix such symbols with Latin text. However, there is no indication
> that a bi-script Latin/Moon text per se would make any sense.
For those who are newly blind, Moon Code is sometimes used
as a stepping stone to Braille, which would make Moon Code
/ Latin Braille texts a possibility in my opinion.
> The main alphabet is an Latin cipher -- one character for each
> of the 26 letters A-Z. But there are additional symbols for
> some common English phonemes and some abbreviatory
> conventions, a numeric sign, and so forth, that would require
> additional characters to encode such a system.
>
> It is an English-only system, by the way, with lists of word
> abbreviations for common English words.
True. If one ignores the boustrophedon nature of Moon Code
then it would suffice to add just a few extra characters.
The CH, TH and WH glyphs in this case could be adequately
represented with use of COMBINING SMALL LETTER H
(U+036A) so that would leave the abbreviation symbol,
the verse separator and maybe the guide lines to be
encoded.
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