VMs: RE: Weirdoes, ligatures (long)

["John Grove" <4groves@xxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----

> Is the VMS written in glyphs, or merely a compilation of
> penstrokes?

A glyph in any language (Alphabet, Hanzi, etc...) is a compilation of
penstrokes.

>>I do not think that this is so simple.
Lets take <n>. Is this part of <in> and <iin>? Many think so.
Then, <n> would not apear after any other character except <i>.
But it does, in the duplets <an> (119 times), <en>  (7 times), <on> (9
times),
<sn> (once) and on its own (at least 3 times).

	I, ofcourse, think that it is simple to consider that 'n' is a character by
itself as all 'characters or glyphs' are created until they hit one of the
standard
'end ligatures'... Thus: 'n' consists of the left half 'i' and end-stroke
that makes
it an 'n'. Another (character or glyph) uses the same end stroke - but has
two 'i's
instead. Yet another has 3 and so on... Then of course - we do have those
annoying
a + i-stroke character/glyphs + endstroke to make things like an @ in the
smallest
form to an aiiin in the longest form. The 'en' could be basically the same
as an @
with the connection between the beginning 'a' form lost. 'on' is really two
separate
glyphs - the 'o' and the single 'n' - same for s (which consists of a
beginning c-stroke
and an ending ligature which is common for sh & r as well as a few of those
tear-drop
wierdos).

	Construction of a glyph/character is in my view a left to right creation -
ending
with one (sometimes two) standard end-strokes that form the combinations
s/r, b/n, 8/j,
y/l, ch/ih, etc... and yes they can be stand alone too. There is no such
thing in my view
of an 'i or e' stroke that doens't end. (Yes, I know there are one or two
samples where
it doesn't look like a word ends properly - but, I think most of these
character combinations
can be accounted for by building a glyph/character in this fashion. The
gallows play a bit
of an odd role as well - sometimes as end strokes, sometimes as beginning
strokes - of that
I won't commit yet... But, you can commit me 8-) to the glyph/character
left-to-right stroke
creation methods...

John Grove.