Urdu and SPACE, FULL STOP (Re: comments on IDNAbis:draft-faltstrom-idnabis-tables-04.txt Arabic

[Kent Karlsson]

Sarmad Hussain wrote:
> For understanding this, we have to start from the very basic fact: 
> 
> 	Urdu hand writing and calligraphy DOES NOT have the 
> concept of space
> 
> 
> It is like Lao, Thai, Khmer and many other Asian languages in 
> that respect.
> I would not be surprised if this is true of all other 
> languages using Arabic
> script, but cannot say for sure.
> 
> "Space" character has been used by users in computers NOT to put space
> between two words but to correct the glyph shaping as per the 
> user needs.
> Thus, it has been used for the same purpose as ZWNJ.  For 
> Urdu (at least)
> the two are synonymous at the presentation layer (except that 
> space can also
> be used for justification, a role which ZWNJ cannot have as 
> it has zero
> width).  Thus, space can be considered a stylistic variation of ZWNJ
> functionally.  
...
> In summary, Urdu does not have space between words.  "Space" 
> is a glyph
> shaping and justification tool for end users of Urdu. ZWNJ is 
> a requirement
> for computational processing of Urdu (internally within 
> applications; not by
> users). 

Assuming that is true, ZERO WIDTH SPACE (ZWSP) would be the
appropriate character to put between words. It breaks joining,
and allows for line breaks.

However, SPACE is not allowed in domain namas, nor should ZWSP.

	/kent k