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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/21/2023 3:49 AM, Jukka K. Korpela
via Unicode wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr"> Asmus Freytag via Unicode (<a
href="mailto:unicode@corp.unicode.org"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">unicode@corp.unicode.org</a>)
wrote:<br>
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<div><span style="font-family:Candara">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.</span></div>
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<div>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.</div>
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<div>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). </div>
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<p>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.<br>
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<div>What would be the way to achieve initial or final form
for a character presented in isolation?</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>A./<br>
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