Re: Arabic font for gnu emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 27.02.2010 um 05:01 schrieb Jason Rumney:

> > GNU Emacs is primarily an editor for programming languages. These are
> > usually based on Latin scripts. And for legibility reasons the fonts
> > used are mono-spaced, i.e., the characters on the (text) lines are
> > lined up in fixed columns.
>
> Emacs has supported proportionally spaced fonts since 21.1, and non-
> Latin languages since 20.1, so neither of these is the source of any
> problem.


You're right, Jason! Arabic is different from being just another  
proportional script. Many characters are not typed by the same glyphs  
in every possible place of a word. Many characters change their shape  
when used as the first (initial) character, its last (final)  
character, or somewhere in-between. So up to three glyphs represent  
one character. Text processors using TT or OT font tables are able to  
select the proper glyph (shape) of the character. It's something like  
building ligatures in Latin based scripts.

(Besides this Arabic bears more computer problems with "accents" above  
and below and writing it, for special, festive, purposes, almost  
diagonally...)

--
Greetings

  Pete

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