[Smc-discuss] Re: Chillaksharams-Malayalam Unicode standard

[Vinod]

Sajith, Mahesh,

It appears (at least to me) that the standard is not clear on what NA +
virama should be rendered as. But it guarantees a chillu form only when
coded as NA + virama + ZWJ. That means keyboards etc. should generate
the ZWJ at the end for guaranteed rendering across platforms. There is
still the question of what we should do with NA + virama. In my personal
opinion, consistency with other non-chillu consonants is desirable. So
it would be nice if the consonant + virama sign is rendered rather than
the chillu form. But perhaps there are other more compelling reasons why
the chillu form should be rendered. In any case, as per the current
standard, it doesn't matter how we do it since this sequence is not
supposed to occur. This calls for standardization in a later version of
Unicode.

Vinod







On Sun, 2004-05-23 at 09:40, Sajith VK wrote:
> Again regarding chillu,
> 
> Unicode standard specified in 
> http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch09.pdf
> describes chillu, zwj, zwnj etc..
> Relevent portion is quoted in vinodes mail.. It start as
> 
> "Five sonorant consonants merge with the virama when they appear in
> syllable-final position with no inherent vowel. A consonant when so
> merged is called cillaks.aram:."  
> And examples are shown below it.. There is no confusion on those
> examples. 
> Now the confusion is on how "NA + virama" should be rendered.
> We interpreted the above document as "NA + virama" should be
> rendered as n. (chillu), and I think saravanan interpreted it
> as "NA + virama" should be rendered as virama explicitly visible
> (ie not forming the chillu)...
> The opentype standard documentation clearly shows that 
> consonent + virama = chillu... Please read this page, 
> http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otfntdev/indicot/features.htm
> 
> I think it clarifies all the issues...
> We need to discuss it furhter, as all the malayalam unicode
> fonts and renders should follow the same standard.....
> 
> Comments? corrections?
> 
> On Fri, 2004-04-30 at 18:02, Sajith VK wrote:
> > On Fri, 2004-04-30 at 16:01, Saravanan wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >    
> > >    I am using RH9.0 with latest Pango patches installed. According to
> > > Unicode consortium for producing the Malayalam chillaksharams one
> > > should press the correspondig consonant, Chandrakala & a zero width
> > > Jointer.Eg: ണ്= ണ+്+ ZWJ(Zero Width Joiner).
> > In which document is this specified? In our font, we made consonant +
> > Chandrakala =chillaksharam. As far as I know this is the opentype
> > standard... So can you please point us to the document which specifies
> > about the standard you mention?
> > >      I have a unicode font MLU-Panini which is developed accocrding to
> > > the Unicode standard. In windows I used to get Chillaksharams(pure
> > > consonants) by pressing the correspondig consonant, Chandrakala & the
> > > keys Ctrl+Shift+1 ( Unicode key- U+200d). But in Linux when i press
> > > the zero width jointer I am getting an "image" like symbol.
> > In the ml keybord we uses, zwj is at  "]"... This is the position
> > of "nuka" in ISM keyboard... ctrl+shift+1 gives you unicode charecter 1,
> > which is in no way ZWJ....
> > >    What is the problem here. What changes & where should it be done in
> > > order to get the proper rendering of the malayalam font, which is
> > > strictly following the the unicode standard.
> > I still doubt, it follows unicode standard... I will check it.....
> > Is it a free font? If yes please send it to us...... Who made
> > this? 
> > >  
> > > Note: In the case of default RH malayalam font, on pressing the
> > > Chandrakala itself we are getting the Chillakasharams. In that case
> > > how could you display ണ+് separated  ie, Consonant without vowel
> > > sound.
> > According to opentpe standard, consonant+chandrakala+zwnj should
> > display them seperated. But pango doesnot support it yet.
> > So you can use Consonent+ZWJ+chandrakala for this...... 
> > 
> > Please note: This email id,saravananv at erdcitvm.org is not
> > subscribed to smc list. So please subscribe this id
> > or send mail from the id subscribed... 
> > We are getting a lot of spams, and it is difficult for
> > modarators to find actual mails and approve them...