Comment 25 for bug 62587

(In reply to comment #13)

> Sorry, Behdad for the delay. I don't think suggesting a new layout is a
> solution. Many typers are used to the current one and those ligatures are
> printed in all available keyboards. Apparently, ligatures on the keyboard
> inherit from old typewriters that don't support shaping ل + ا to a ligature.
> I think the abilility to type a combination of characters should be enabled
> since it is needed by many languages other than Arabic. The most serious case
> is the Kurdish Arabic script layout: To type the phonem /e/ they need to type
> Ha' (ه) + ZWNJ which is not a solution for a so frequently typed letter. See
> http://lists.arabeyes.org/archives/general/2006/August/msg00010.html .

I agree that the feature is generally useful in some non-major languages (Kurdish and Uighar come to mind). What I don't agree is that we should be limited by the limitations of old typewriters these days. You've got to change *some* day. We've done that in Persian and are really happy so far. Apple has adopted our new layout. Linux has had it for long. And there are multiple drivers for Windows. No hardware still has it printed, but that will take some time. The positive side is that the new layout is a lot better and everyone who has tried it agrees.

And last but not least, the olpc machine doesn't have to use the legacy layout.