Re: Complex script editor wish list

At 11:19 AM 9/23/03 +0200, you wrote:
>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.
That's got to be rather awkward for you.  I've noticed at times that my
(non-dominant) right hand or arm is actually slightly stronger than my
(dominant) left hand and arm.  However, it is only the left hand that is
truly coordinated.  My right hand is much more coordinated than most
right-handed people's left hand is, but I am far from being ambidextrous.

I truly believe that my daughter was born left-handed.  When she first
started reaching for things, it was invariably with her left
hand.  However, she started avidly sucking her left thumb (another
indication of left-handedness) when she was two months old.  Eventually, it
got to the point that she had her left thumb in her mouth so often that she
was forced to start reaching for things with her right hand if she didn't
want to remove the thumb from her mouth (which she didn't.)  Eventually,
she started using her right hand for almost everything because the left one
was in her mouth all the time.  She is very definately right-handed now,
but I wouldn't be at all surprised if she were to have a left-handed child
someday, because I think that she was born lef-handed.

>>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 can sympathize.  Most of the medications that I am on have tremor as a
side-effect.  It's not a real problem when it's only a very fine tremor
limited to the fingers, but sometimes the entire hand (or even forearm)
will have a coarser tremor.  There have been some times in the past when I
was doing language arts lessons with my daughter, and they involved making
up "wall charts" of what we had been learning.  These were made in water
soluble marker in large handwriting.  Water-soluble is a real pain to work
with as a lefty to begin with, and then I started to get a very bad hand
tremor, and the only choice I had was to call the lesson off.  Fortunately,
my body seems to have become more accustomed to the meds and this doesn't
happen as often anymore.

However, I don't have the best handwriting to begin with (though it has
improved radically since I have had to teach my daughter how to write), and
I do have a slight tremor at all times.  I am not at all certain that I
will have much success in developing native scripts for my conlangs (should
I chose to do that) because of my general lack of precise cordination when
it comes to handwriting.  I am more likely to come out with a sloppy mess
than a useable font.

>>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! :-)
That's interesting to know, the bit about slant-cut vs. straight nibs and
the situation in India.  I know that I have left-handed calligraphy nibs
and that they are cut on a slant.  I didn't realize that the right-handed
nibs had no slant.

Isidora

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