Re: [m17n-list] Add arrows

[Vish vas Vasuki]

On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 1:28 AM, Dominik Wujastyk <address@hidden> wrote:

As a Sanskrit scholar and busy author, I use the IAST and Harvard-Kyoto m17n keyboard maps many times every day. 

संस्कृतभाषी भूतोऽहम् अपि प्रतिदिनं नैकवारं ( hi-itrans, sa-itrans) प्रयुञ्जे। As a Sanskrit speaker, I use hi-itrans and sa-itrans many times every day - not just for writing tomes, but for daily communication. (Eg: Verses, padyadhArA, sUtrANi [as spreadsheet], dhAtu [as spreadsheet], prAtipadikam [as spreadsheet], pada-sandhAnam [as spreadsheet], kosha ).

 

We should be thinking about core and periphery.  The main distribution should contain the core.  The core distribution can't possibly cater for all possible future individual needs.

It can cater to many possible individual/ specialist needs.

 

  It should make as good a job as possible of typing IAST and Devanagari, and be less concerned with mathematical and other symbols. 

It should do both.

 

We don't want to fill up the standard files with stuff that only one or two people actually want. 

And how would one determine that only one or two of half a billion devanAgarI users want arrows? Do we expect normal users to be motivated enough join m17n mailing in droves and make their wants known?

  On the other hand, if some additions don't over-burden the keyboard (making typos more likely), then there's probably no harm. 

Exactly - Most of the time there is no harm. If there is harm, we should not do it.

 

Incidentally, for anyone writing on Sanskrit grammar, it's not only arrows that are necessary, but other symbols like the root or surd sign, √, superscripts, subscripts, etc.  Especially if one is writing about Pāṇini. 

अहम् अपि पाणिनीये ऽधिकम् एव श्रमं करोमि। But we mostly use arrows. I can see how √ is useful, but I haven't seen it used by the community I interact with (eg: samskrita, bharatIya-vidvat-pariShad, …).

 

And we don't have upadhmanīya and jihvamūlīya in the m17n H-K map yet, do we?  As real parts of the Devanagari syllabary, they should take precedence over symbols, I think.

You mean like ೲ‌ and ೱ - unlike m17n H-K map users, I have been diligent enough to have added those symbols in sa-itrans a long time ago, thank you.

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Vishvas /विश्वासः