[nlci_kannada_winscript] Kannada Winscript (NLCI) Keyboard lacking characters

[MakaraSok]

A user has posted this on the community site at https://community.software.sil.org/t/kannada-winscript-nlci-keyboard-lacking-characters/7581.

The keyboard is pretty exhaustive even if I were to type Sanskrit in Kannada as well as type phonetic foreign words in Kannada using it, but I would like to know if the following characters can also be incorporated into the keyboard to include all Kannada letters, since they aren’t there in it yet?

ೠ, ಌ, ೡ ( ೃ , ೄ , ೢ , ೣ ), ಼, ಽ, ೞ

Long Vocalic RR, Short Vocalic L and Long Vocalic LL and their diacritic marks.
Kannada nuqta, especially for Z and F.
Kannada Avagraha and Kannada Zha.

@binilasanki Would you mind looking into this, since you've created the keyboard?

[milindchakraborty]

While we're at it, may I request a few additional features for Tulu typing support on this keyboard? Many people use the Kannada script to type in Tulu, and Tulu has certain standards that might require additional support in Kannada keyboards. Tulu-specific Unicode Kannada keyboards are rare, so this keyboard can become more inclusive without becoming overly complex or losing its fundamental characteristics.

1. Firstly, there is a more general need, not limited to Tulu: keys to insert 'ZWNJ' and 'ZWJ' characters into the keyboard. Something like '_' for ZWNJ and '+' for ZWJ can be used, like the ITRANS keyboards. I will explain why these are crucial for Tulu in more detail.

2. Tulu requires a vowel length mark 'ೕ', which is the Kannada Vowel Length Mark encoded in Unicode, for vowels (and their signs) like 'ಅೕ್' (ŭ̄), 'ಎೕ್' (ǣ). This mark should be attachable to every vowel, vowel sign, or consonant, and can also be followed by a VIRAMA, like this: 'ೕ್‌'. (This implies support for the keys 'x' and 'X' to be used after the vowel length mark.)

3. In the current keyboard layout, pressing the key 'x' returns a VIRAMA, while 'X' returns VIRAMA+ZWNJ. The latter is useful, but currently, it can only be applied after consonants and not vowels. For instance, when I type 'aX,' 'uX,' or 'eX,' I get 'ಅX,' 'ಉX,' and 'ಎX' respectively. Although typing 'ax,' 'ux,' and 'ex' correctly returns 'ಅ್,' 'ಉ್,' and 'ಎ್' respectively, they lack the 'ZWNJ' character. Consequently, when these combinations appear in non-terminal positions, they get distorted. For example, when I type 'ŭḻe' meaning 'The Earth' in Tulu as 'axLLe' or 'uxLLe,' it appears as 'ಅ್ೞೆ' or 'ಉ್ೞೆ' instead of the correct rendering 'ಅ್‌ೞೆ' or 'ಉ್‌ೞೆ'. This support is also necessary for the 'Kannada vowel length mark' in addition to other vowels and their signs, as well as if we wanted to attach a VIRAMA before or after ZWNJ/ZWJ. This is essentially why I separately requested support for 'ZWNJ' and 'ZWJ,' as they would be universally useful.

4. The two Kannada Chandrabindus can be provided as separate key sequences on the keyboard to support nasalisation purposes, as they are occasionally used in certain Tulu dialects: 'ಀ' and 'ಁ'.

5. It is important to note that the NOTO SANS KANNADA font already offers comprehensive support for all the mentioned features, including the forms requested earlier, making it highly beneficial for both Tulu and Kannada typing. Therefore, it is highly recommended that NOTO SANS KANNADA be set as the default font for the keyboard. By doing so, users can benefit from the font's proper support and ensure seamless typing and accurate display of Tulu and Kannada text with all the required characters and features. (Noto Serif Kannada is otherwise fine, except that Vowels+VIRAMA sequences are slightly messed up)