Re: Constructed vertical writing systems?

Right, well, not the answer I hoped for, but about the answer I
expected. ^_^

In any case, thanks for letting me know about the TeX group on Yahoo.  I
know *what* it is, but I have no idea at all how to start with it.  And,
I haven't really had the time to figure it out yet, either.  I guess I
have more motivation now!
I try to keep the complexity of my scripts to a minimum, just to get
around some of these issues.  And, before someone else says it, no, I
don't feel like I lose anything when I do that.  ConLangs are
complicated enough! ^_^  Seriously, I tend to think in Latin characters,
so when I picture words in my head, I see them in a Romanized form.  So,
luckily, that lends itself to simple alphabets and fonts.

Thanks again for the info!
Jim

> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:08:08 -0500
> From:    Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
> Subject: Re: Constructed vertical writing systems?
>         First, there's a little side group over at Yahoo called LaTeX for Conlangers,
> in which one of the group projects is the creation of a METAFONT tutorial (if
> you don't know what TeX/LaTeX is, we will be happy to disabuse you of your
> innocence. :) Christophe Grandsire is almost done with the first part,
> hurray, hurray. Several of us our quite eager to start creating our own fonts
> with something more elegant than TrueType.
>         In regards to your questions, some of the biggest challenges will probably be
> created by the very nature of your script. If your script has hundreds of
> letters (Sanskrit, Japanese, Chinese,etc), or marks vowels by the means of
> diacritics (Hebrew, Arabic, Tengwar), or has different initial, medial, and
> final forms (Arabic, Mongolian), you are going to start running into some
> problems. Not to say that there aren't answers, since obviously all of the
> above mentioned languages have fonts, but expect to make some compromises.
>         :Peter
> --
> Oh what a tangled web they weave who try a new word to conceive!
>
> ------------------------------
--
"It's better to light one candle
   than to curse the darkness."
-Chinese Proverb and The Motto of the Christophers
                      http://www.christophers.org

Reply