I was reading the chapter on Cree (written by J. Nichols) in World's
Writing Systems at the library and thought of what an excellent
resource it would be for any future work in normalization for long
vowel marker or preaspiration in Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics.
It clearly states that these features are optional so naturally it
would be easier if some day this could be worked out. Otherwise using
optional features to sort or search in google will create ongoing
difficulties. I don't understand the process but I am sure that some
day the people working in CAS will want to see this happen. I have
talked to a few.
I would certainly recommend this as a reference but it is probably
already well-known.
Gleason's chapter in WWS also discusses the extensive literacy
established in Cree Syllabics so I feel that the whole discussion
about dyslexia among the Cree was rather unfortunate and should never
have happened. I did not initiate that thread but I did contribute to
it - apologies.
This chapter also contains an interesting discussion of the status
of 'w'in Syllabics. It can appear with a vowel as the first
consonant row, the last consonat row, be at the side of the chart as
a diacritic (in preunicode terms) or left off the chart altogether. I
think in that case the 'o' vowel might substitute for 'w' - I have
seen that but I am not sure how common that is. Now I'll have to
check back and see how this is encoded.