Handling Malayalam "NTA" issue for Lohit2

[Mahesh T. Pai]

pravin.d.s at gmail.com said on Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 03:45:00PM +0530,:
    - Lohit 1 is supporting sequence (A) from long time (even before
 > Unicode 5.1), so for the backward compatibility lohit2 should support the
 > same.
 > 

I believe thet the UTC wanted to maintain compatibility with some
_beta_ version of Microsoft's some software in making the choice that
it did regarding the /nta/ sequence. 


 >     Presently i am in favour of not supporting Unicode defined
 > sequence (B) in lohit2 and keep on using (A) which is used in Lohit
 > fonts family from long time.

Allow me to go on a nostalgia trip. Almost a decade back, the then SMC
team came accross what was obvious lack of clarity in the UTS. They
decided, against my advise, to follow the suggestions in OpenType
definition. To be fair, then, I had no alternative to offer, except
not to implement the suggestion in the OpenType pages. Microsoft
ultimately waited for some clarity in the UTS before implementing
anything. and the communimity efforts went (mostly) in vain. 

Right now, given a choice between supporting legacy data and
standards, I will choose the latter, with some kind of jugaad based on
the PUA / glyph name to enable support for legacy data. 

Not the ideal situation, but when politics get the uppoer hand over
merits, efficiency and appropriateness always takes a backseat. 

-- 
Mahesh T. Pai   ||
free -  (adj) able to  act at will;  not hampered;
       not  under  compulsion  or restraint;  free
       from  obligations or  duties; not  bound to
       servitude; at liberty.