APPENDIX D : A Convention for Mixed Script Notation

Punctuation and Rules for Mixed Script Notation


  For mixed script compositions, a set of interpretation rules have have
  been devised for SERA text files.  Upon initial analysis the escape rules
  may appear inconsistant.  Their logical use should become apparent when
  working with them, as they are designed in part to go naturaly with their
  frequency of use.


The \ Text Escape

    \  Followed by any undefined char, toggles the script interpretter
       mode (Ethiopic<->Latin).  An alphabetic (readible) character
       may not be used as an escape sequence following the \ text
       escape.  The defined escapes sequences may have different
       functions in the two script modes.  When followed by a blank
       space " ", the mode toggle occurs and the space is deleted.

    \\         Sends "\" from either mode.
          _
    \.     |
    \,     |   Sends the equivalent punctuation
    \;     |   of the OTHER mode to the screen.
    \:    _|

                                    _
    \_     Eth. Word Separator       |  Sends the defined Ethiopic 
    \*     Eth. Paragraph Terminator |  character from both modes.
    \1..9  Eth. Numerals             |
    \<     Eth. Left Quote (<<)      | 
    \>     Eth. Right Quote (>>)    _|  

          _
    \|     |   In Ethiopic mode |, ' or ` is sent to the screen.
    \'     |   In Latin mode, the toggle is made to Ethiopic
    \`    _|   and |,` or ' is treated as the first char in the
               text segment and treated with the normal rules
               (i.e. just the stanard toggle into Ethiopic).

    \!         The "Hard Mode Toggle".  The switch toggles modes but
               treats all text until the ending \! as one script.
               This allows extended use of \ and \~ without the
               requirement for \\ and \\~ but at the cost of using only
               one script within the text region.  

   \~ Graphic Escape

    ~  If followed by a defined character, the appropraite event occurs.
       It is left to software houses to recognize each others' graphic
       escape sequences and provide filters.  ~ is recommended as a means 
       to denote the nonstandard characters of a font set in ascii.

   Default
    \~x      "x" is undefined in an application, then "x" is ignored. 
             and nothing appears when transliterated.  Also true if
             x = " ".
     

If a user truly wants to toggle modes and  have _ , <, >, !, *, ~ 
or an Arabic number apear as the first character in the new mode,
the simple solution is to type the character before toggle 
such as :

        ~\      <\
        _\      >\
        *\      !\