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

[Patrick Chew]

>On 19/04/2004 04:08, Crockett wrote:
> > 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.
> > 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? ...

         Well, if you're using a Unicode based system, then keyboards
(which one can be used to or not) are merely conveniences for inputting the
proper glyphs/string(s) of glyphs.
         If you're really needing a lot of extended Arabic glyphs that are
not found in the standard Arabic keyboarded repertoire, then my suggestion
would be to get accustomed to using the Farsi keyboard.
         As far as I know, there is no difference in ligatures between
Arabic and Farsi. A lot of the diacritics used in Qur`anic Arabic are often
not found on a Farsi keyboard only because of low frequency.

         I've actually been working on an extended Arabic script keyboard
which will try to include as many extended glyphs beyond Arabic and Farsi
(since I do work with Central Asian and Malay to some degree). The keyboard
is not based on any of the national standards which many may be used to
already, but would be based on a generalized transcription system.
         If you're using WinXP or like system and would be interested,
please contact me.


At 07:59 AM 4/19/2004, Peter Kirk wrote:
>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.

         From what I've gathered, a lot of the differences between Arabic
and Farsi typesetting lies primarily in glyph choices, esp. with regards to
Urdu.
         I've found an online article which gives a nice basic overview of
the whole situation:
http://www.agfamonotype.com/presentations/iuc-24-km/ArabicCharactersUseGuide.pdf

         What *is* annoying, though, is even within Arabic, there're
various typographic conventions which are confusing to someone who's used
to thinking that any different configuration in glyph morphology indicates
a different value, e.g. Maghribi use of <feh with dot below>, <qaf with
dots below>, etc..

cheers,
-Patrick



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