Subject: Re: GX vs PS (was Re: Howabout Something Better than what we have
From: [email-masked]
Date: 1998/06/14
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.next.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.programmer.misc

In article <[email-masked]>,

> OK, how does it handle the "Cherokee Nation Font" problem?

Probably better than GX, if you want to mix it with Klingon...
Thanks to Deirdre Saoirse for posting this elsewhere..

Best wishes,
mmalc.

Subject: Medu Neter
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 96 13:35:38 -0800
From: Anne Ogborn <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>, "WASTE" <[email-masked]>

> And one last question, I understand that Apple can handle scripts that
> go left to right or right to left. The Tameran Medu Neter
> traditionally follow a general flow of the main passage going from the
> center outward at the top of the page (left to right and right to
> left), with supporting passages usually being arranged in verticle
> columns. Also, the arrangement of the characters within a single word
> is involves changes in all four directions (left to right, right to
> left, down to up, and up to down) as well as leaps to the end of the
> word and a return to the previous location (all characters that are
> also deity names are placed in a position of honor at the end of a
> word as a sign of respect, regardless of where that corresponding
> sound falls in the word). Does Apple support languages that act in
> this manner?

    It is true that Mac API's support both right to left and vertical
text.

    Apple does not currently sell a script system for Medu Neter, and I
know of no plans to create one. Under Quickdraw GX it should be possible
to create such a script system, however the mixed direction page layout
would require it's own specialized page layout code above the API level.
It would be a nontrivial task to implement such a system.

    If you should decide to implement such a system you should place it
in the smKlingon space, as we do not currently reserve a space in the
script numbering system for Medu Neter. Obviously this will cause
problems for Macintosh users who wish to compose mixed Klingon/Medu
Neter documents, but hopefully this will be rare.

Engineering Support Engineer
World Ready Software Group
Apple Computer
Ph: (408)974-7089 T,R
Ph: (415)552-3577 M,W,F
[email-masked]