On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 22:30:44 -0400, Andrew Dunbar <hippietrail@...>
wrote:

> are the only ones I've ever found which deals with the aspect of how
> writing systems are used on computers. If anybody here is aware of
> another I shall gladly subscribe to that also.

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend your spending time and energy at
such sites, such authors as Jukka Korpela and Alan Wood, abong others,
have prepared and collected a lot of material about "i18n", and really
understanding that topic well seems to be enhanced by a knowledge of
writing systems. Specifically for computers, a well-rounded awareness
would, imho, include, for instance, some knowledge of what Microsoft
refers to as Input Method Editors.
I don't think a general understanding of computer fonts and font files
would be out of place; not sure. (Details would probably be out of place;
the bits I have read about font file structure seem sometimes rather
esoteric.)

As to PTD's apparent wish to exclude discussion of computers from Qalam,
I'm puzzled. If one regards a computer as a phenomenally-versatile tool
that also shows evidence of human weaknesses in its design, it, with not
much doubt, is probably the one most-significant "tools" for
writing-system work. Would Mr. Daniels exclude typesetters, traditional
mechanical typewriters, or electronic/mechanical typewriters? Surely one
would not exclude pens, writing brushes, paper, nor ink, although none of
those seems to have been the topic of much comment. (Yrs trly is
interested also in pen technology; it's not a static field.)

Furthermore, I think it would not be a bad idea to understand somewhat
better how a computer handles text. After all, many people understand
typewriters rather well, and a smaller number understand typesetting
machines.

I don't think that computers are comparatively new, and not as well
explained (by far!) as they could be, should be reason to exclude them.

My 200 centicents worth. (".79¢" is seventy-nine centicents.)

Regards,

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
The curious hermit -- autodidact and polymath
Hope for these times: Paul Rogat Loeb's book --
"The Impossible Will Take a Little While:..."