Re: NATLANG/Learning : Sanskrit
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Saturday, August 16, 2003, 18:36 |
Nikhil Sinha scripsit:
> > Does someone know how I can write in Sanskrit under Windows 98 with all
> > the (historic or modern) ligatures?
>
> You cannot use Unicode for this. You have to use standard Devanagari fonts.
The main problem is that the Win 9x/ME operating systems are based on
8-bit code pages, and there are none for Indic scripts. On Win NT/2K/XP,
as well as Mac OS X, the underlying system is Unicode-based and
Devanagari (as well as the other South Asian scripts) are properly supported.
> 1. Unicode (Arial Unicode MS) - In this , Devanagari letters cannot be
> typed.
The other problem is that exactly which ligatures are supported in a
Unicode system depends solely on the font. Modern Hindi fonts have
suitable ligatures for writing Hindi, whereas specialist Skt fonts have
far more. The underlying representation is always the same:
consonant+virama+consonant.
--
John Cowan www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com jcowan@reutershealth.com
"'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly, pull
as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in the
large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) 'will
jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack Robinson.'"
--the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake