Re: Complex script editor wish list

At 13:55 19.9.2003 -0400, Isidora Zamora wrote:

>Are you left handed?  (I am.)
I'm actually ambidextrous.  The long story is that
I'm lame since shortly after birth.  I máy have been
originally lefthanded since my mother is, but all
the physiotherapists concentrated on exercising my
right hand!  In spite or because of this I've ended
up with a rather clumsy right hand on a strong right
arm, and a more nimble left hand on a weak left arm.

Nevertheless hand-writing is one of the few things I
normally do with my right hand, basically because of
the funny movements my left arm tend to do when I try
to write with my left hand.  I hàve tried left-hand
writing, both right-to-left in experimenting with
conscripts and top- down with Latin script.  I even
experimented with developing a left-handed, right-to-
left version of Melin's Swedish Shorthand! Also for a
time I used a left-handed Dvorak keyboard of my own
devising (which was easy on old Macintoshes! :-),
which allowed me to type with my left hand while resting
the right hand on the mouse!

>The way that left-handed caligraphers using
>Roman characters have typically gotten around the problem is to turn the
>page on its side so that they write top to bottom and in columns (rows)
>that go from right to left.  When it's done and the page is turned upright,
>the characters move in the same direction as a right-handed scribe's.
I have done the right-handed equivalent of that when
writing Devanagari. I first tried with a slant-cut nib,
but found that it tended to tear the paper when I did
pushed strokes.  This was back in the days before my
arms started to tremor...

>I do know that the pens are cut at the opposite angle for a left-handed
>scribe, and I don't know whether that has a subtle effect on the shape of
>the letters or not.
Slant-cut nibs are used to enable left-handed scribes to write
left-to-right while the letter-shapes remain similar to those
a right-handed scribe produces with a straight nib.  In India
the situation is reversed, the slant-cut nib being normally
used by right-handed scribes.  Come to think of it this must
mean that there's a natural occupational niche for lefties there! :-)





/BP 8^)
--
B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
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