Re: Font layouts

At 09:11 AM 10/8/98 +0200, Shaul Vardi wrote:

>As you're probably aware, the 4-form system for letters you describe is
>very reminiscent of Arabic. On Arabic word processors, the form of the
>letter changes AUTOMATICALLY as you type. It's great fun to watch,
>especially given (IMHO) the tremendous beauty of the Arabic alphabet. I
>mean you type, for example, a ba' (a letter "b"), then a mim ("m"), so
>the mim is last and has the final form, but if you then add, say, a lam
>("l") the mim changes automatically to the medial form.
>
>I wonder whether you could kind of latch onto an Arabic font in some
>way, and then maintain this system? It would be hard work, I'm sure, but
>would also be perhaps a more logical way of coping with different forms
>of the same letter, and certainly easier once you had it set up.
>
I would imagine that the kind of letter-changing behavior you describe is
actually performed by either a word-processor set up for Arabic or some sort
of front-end keyboard program that intercepts the keystrokes and
changes the letters accordingly.  I doubt that the letter-changing
is controlled simply by the Arabic font.  In fact, I've got an Arabic
font, and it has all the forms, but doesn't automatically change them.

-- Terry

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/2711