Re: Complex script editor wish list

> I've been thinking that a configurable text editor with the ability to use
> complex scripts would be a good thing to have. Pretty much all the scripts
> I've come up with since I started doing my conlanging on the computer have
> been fairly simple, but in the pencil and paper days, I had some fairly
> complex scripts like the one used for Neesklaaz (as I spelled it in those
> days; I've referred to it as Niskloz or Nieskloz more recently). Vowel
> marks in the Neesklaaz script are written over the following consonant, and
> more than one vowel mark can be written over the same consonant. Adjacent
> consonants can combine to form ligatures. Vowel marks are often attached to
> a specific point on a consonant, and multiple vowel marks on the same
> consonant may need to be specially positioned or replaced with a ligature.
I don't see why you need a new text editor in order to be able to do these
things. Decent fonts, Unicode support, and some scripts should be able to
handle it. It seems that the problem lies more with support of Unicode
than problems inherent in a text editor.

> So I've been thinking of writing a primitive text editor that can be
> configured to handle complex scripts.
The thing is, there already exist (at least) two very advanced editors
that can handle complex scripts: vi and emacs. All that's needed to add
support for *your* complex script is a relatively small patch.

> Clearly, it has to be able to handle ligatures, diacritic placement, and
> the kinds of contextual substitution that come up in complex scripts. The
> Kazvarad script has a couple of letters with alternate forms that are used
> when a long ascender would otherwise run into a nearby letter. Script
> direction is also important; the Twing script historically used for
> Nimoryikh is written right-to-left, and the Kazat ?Akkorou and Yortry
> scripts are written vertically. It would be really nice to support mixed
> script direction in the same document, but that brings up a whole new set
> of problems, especially with vertical scripts.
For this, you want LaTeX. Which you can write with one of the previously
mentioned text editors.

> Real-life scripts like Devanagari have complex reordering rules, where a
> short i might need to be moved to the left side of a syllable at the same
> time that an initial r- is moved to the end and replaced with a combining
> mark above the final consonant. Then you've got scripts like Oriya and
> Cambodian, where a single vowel character might need to be split up into
> three parts before, above, and at the end of the syllable. So the text
> display system at least needs to be able to find the boundaries of a
> syllable and move characters around relative to those boundaries. (Probably
> one reason the Thai script is encoded differently is that it's not always
> possible to find the syllable boundaries without dictionary lookups.)
I don't know if these are even things that a text editor should do. In
Thai, at least, you type the characters in the same order that they are
written, without regard to pronunciation. An editor that automatically
reorders your symbols is an interesting idea, but once again can be done
with a simple script extending an existing editor.

I don't want to discourage you from making your own text editor if you
insist on it, but I think you'll get better and more useful results by
adapting existing tools.

--
Jesse S. Bangs jaspax@u.washington.edu
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/
http://students.washington.edu/jaspax/blog

Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"

And they answered, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground
of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our
interpersonal relationship."

And Jesus said, "What?"

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