Re: why is Dutch the default language for note-entry?

[Hans Aberg]

On 18 Dec 2008, at 20:40, <address@hidden> wrote:

> > If you want to fit all the world languages into one keyboard map, you
> > might join the Unicode list; there are more than 100000 characters
> > available.
>
> Unicode is a good solution for recording the result internally, but  
> as far
> as I know keyboard layout is still an open issue, with a variety of
> standards groups at the country level offereing script-specific  
> solutions
> that are probably irreconcilable to any kind of universal solution.

Right. So the best one can hope for is a series of keyboard maps that  
perhaps unify groups of characters, that those that so like may use.

> Last
> I knew (Mac OS 7) Apple had effective script-specific keyboard  
> layouts for
> simple writing systems that allowed direct entry (once switched to),  
> and
> employed special typing agents for indirect C J K entry.

Mac OS X has a keyboard layout that allows one to enter a character by  
its Unicode number (code point). So there is then already at least one  
keyboard map that covers all Unicode characters. But it isn't very  
convenient.

On the other hand, it is easy to switch keyboard maps, on mine it is  
<command><space>.

So it might be possible to make one layout for entering notes and  
accidentals. One can make a whole series, of course, that only needs  
somebody willing to do it. But keyboard maps can of course handle  
combining character sequences as well, covering many more characters.

> Could be worse, historical chinese typesetting not only required  
> fluency,
> but also physical handling of some 60,000 individual 'sorts' of
> characters; imagine that set of cases.

I do not know what they use - check on the Unicode list. One in the  
past that was claimed to be fast was to do some typing an then getting  
a display of possibilities, which one then chooses from. Modern fonts  
can typeset by radicals, so  they do not need to store all characters;  
perhaps that can be used for typing as well.

  Hans