Zero-Width Joiner U+200D

[Asmus Freytag]

On 2/21/2023 3:49 AM, Jukka K. Korpela via Unicode wrote:
>  Asmus Freytag via Unicode (unicode at corp.unicode.org) wrote:
>
>     Clearly one of the design features was to also support "didactic"
>     formatting, that is, bracketing a character with joiners or
>     non-joiners to be able to show positional forms in isolation.
>
>
> If that was, and is, the intent, then the standard apparently should 
> be amended, adding such descriptions. At present, the description only 
> deals with the effect of ZWJ when it appears between two graphic 
> characters, and it is difficult to avoid the impression that in other 
> contexts it should be ignored. In any case, there is no requirement or 
> recommendation or even suggestion about its effect when used at the 
> start of a string or at the end of a string.
>
> It would be simple to add a description like “surrounding a character 
> with ZWJ should lead to it being rendered with its medial form” (if 
> the character has such a representation form).

I think we need to look at whether the language accurately reflects what 
we were trying to say. I do know that it was revised at one point, when 
the use of ZWJ was generalized beyond cursive connection. The 
interpretation you suggest may be an inadvertent result of that change, 
or someone had found out why the usage that I always understood as 
intended is for some reason problematic. In that case, it should be 
excluded more explicitly, in my view.

> What would be the way to achieve initial or final form for a character 
> presented in isolation?
>
One sided "bracketing" of the character with ZWJ and ZWNJ on the other 
side. The latter is optional if the didactic use is separated by other 
whitespace from any adjacent text.

A./

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