Re: Script Continuums (Was: Re: Greek glyphs)

From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 02 2005 - 07:45:15 CST

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    UList@dfa-mail.com wrote at 5:56 PM on Tuesday, March 1, 2005:

    >> it had everything to do
    >> with enabling cuneiform text processing and interchange in mixed script
    >> systems text.
    >
    >Which of course means you could just use Latin transliteration, except when
    >you need to discuss a photograph of some noteworthy sample. As your
    field has,
    >I believe, always previously done.

    I challenge you, or anyone, to programmatically isolate cuneiform in
    plain text text streams when it is transliterated; but this is trivial to
    do if it is encoded.

    >You, and perhaps every single other user of Sumeric cuneiform, may choose to
    >deal only in one standardized script. This may or may not be ideal for some
    >divergent documents. I will leave it to the individual workers in
    cuneiform to
    >determine how they wish to deal with this subject in their own studies.

    I, for one, do indeed plan on using period-specific glyphs in Unicode
    cuneiform (when they become available - right now we have only UR III and
    Neo-Assyrian glyphs), but this will be rightfully relegated to the
    variable font level, i.e., above the plain text level.

    >I find it highly odd -- and unacceptable -- for you to actually (if you read
    >the words you wrote) forbid Greek users from displaying anything but standard
    >Greek script in HTML.

    I have never forbidden glyphic variation in HTML to Greek users, or to
    any other users. I also work in Greek, including archaic Greek, but when
    I feel the need for glyphic variation I change fonts, a triviality for
    HTML. (Note that I am making no statement here about whether or not
    archaic Greek should be encoded separately from later Greek. This
    SPECIFIC encoding issue, as opposed to your GENERAL suggestion, is
    associated with a combination of variabilities in character repertoire,
    glyph shape, writing direction, and character stance, and not just with
    glyph shape alone.)

    Respectfully,

    Dean A. Snyder

    Assistant Research Scholar
    Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project
    Computer Science Department
    Whiting School of Engineering
    218C New Engineering Building
    3400 North Charles Street
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218

    office: 410 516-6850
    cell: 717 817-4897
    www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi/
    http://users.adelphia.net/~deansnyder/



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