[Lexicog] Arabic-based scripts in Shoebox on Arabic-enabled computers

[Peter Kirk]

On 19/04/2004 04:08, Crockett wrote:

> I realize that those characters are found in Farsi, but I don't see
> how that helps. I see two possible situations you are suggesting. Is
> there another situation I'm not seeing?
>
> Situation 1) Use the Arabic keyboard until you get to a letter where
> you need the Farsi keyboard, switch to Farsi, type it in, then go back
> to the Arabic keyboard. So you're using two keyboard layouts for one
> word. That doesn't seem like a good solution; and I don't know how the
> ligatures would look that way.
>

Not a convenient solution, but the ligatures would work OK - switching
keyboards doesn't affect ligation etc.

> Situation 2) Instead of using the Arabic keyboard, use a Farsi
> keyboard. First of all, that would pose a problem in that the typist
> might not know the Farsi keyboard whereas they would know the Arabic
> keyboard. (From what I remember, they do not have the same layout.)
> Then there are a couple of unknowns in situation 2 for me: Do
> ligatures in Farsi work the same as in Arabic? ...
>

Yes, with a few small exceptions which are handled in Unicode by using
different characters e.g. a special Farsi yeh.

> ... Does Farsi have all the same characters and diacritics that Arabic
> has? ...
>

All the same basic characters plus some extra ones, except for the
substitution of yeh and kaf. Not quite all the same diacritics I think.

> ... Is the style of Farsi writing the same as what is acceptable and
> normal in Arabic?
>

No, but the difference is mostly in the fonts, although the differences
in yeh and kaf may be considered stylistic. I am not an expert, but this
is what I have understood from those who are.

> In my message below, I only referred to two special characters - which
> happen to be found in Farsi. There are other special Arabic-based
> characters one might need that are not found in Farsi, only in
> Unicode. In that case, I suppose you would need to follow Peter Kirk's
> solution in that you'd need to create your own keyboard layout -
> either with a Microsoft program or with Keyman. If that's true, then
> I'd kind of be back to the question I asked below: Can these (gaf and
> za w/ three dots) be entered straight into Toolbox without a special
> keyboard (and without having to use an unknown keyboard or switch
> keyboards in the middle of a word)?
>
Any Unicode character can be entered into Toolbox by pasting from an
application like BabelMap; most of them from Windows Character Map. You
can probably use alt + num pad combinations, and perhaps type the
Unicode hex sequence followed by Alt-X, which works in many applications.



--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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