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Yehudit keyboard for Mac?


Submerged06

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Hey guys,

 

I'm hoping to make a new keyboard on my mac that mimics Accordance's Yehudit font (to prevent having to learn two different ways to type Hebrew depending if I'm in Accordance or not). I have a program that I could do it with manually (Ukelele), but I was wondering 1) if someone else has already done that and 2) if there was a way for them to export and then I to import it into my Mac.

 

If that it possible, but noone has done that yet, then I can do it myself and make the file available here. I'm just hoping to avoid all of that work if it isn't necessary :).

 

Thanks!

- Alex

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Alex,

 

It's a good idea, but I doubt anyone has done it yet. I probably would've heard about it.

Some time ago, I fiddled with Ukelele making some customs keyboards, and the mapping for Accordance's Greek layout Helena was one I created.

Do share if you do so.

 

Joe

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Sure thing :). If you have the Helena one available, could you post that on here? That could come in handy. Assuming you can export a keyboard like that, which I still don't know about. If you can then I can post the Hebrew version in the next day or two.

 

- Alex

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Hmmmm . . . I've run into a bit of a snag.

 

I've been looking at Accordance's font pdf, and the three different positions (short/medium/long overstrikes) of each vowel confuse me.

 

Is it necessary to use these while in Accordance? Since we are (I would think) mainly searching, does three three versions effect that or will any of them do?

 

Would it make more difference if you were typing Hebrew into a typical word processor? I'm basically trying to figure out if I need to actually get all three into the keyboard. Besides, I'm not sure how I would -- all I know how to do Ukelele is to insert vowels I can't type. The two Hebrew fonts I currently have installed do not seem to have three different places of each vowel.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

- Alex

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Hmmmm . . . I've run into a bit of a snag.

 

I've been looking at Accordance's font pdf, and the three different positions (short/medium/long overstrikes) of each vowel confuse me.

 

Is it necessary to use these while in Accordance? Since we are (I would think) mainly searching, does three three versions effect that or will any of them do?

 

Would it make more difference if you were typing Hebrew into a typical word processor? I'm basically trying to figure out if I need to actually get all three into the keyboard. Besides, I'm not sure how I would -- all I know how to do Ukelele is to insert vowels I can't type. The two Hebrew fonts I currently have installed do not seem to have three different places of each vowel.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

- Alex

 

The legacy font Yehudit needs three different widths for some diacriticals because it is displaying a fixed size glyph. However, this is unnecessary for a Unicode character. The font should compose the glyphs properly in each case.

But, you're confusing yourself a bit regarding the issue. The only question here in creating the Yehudit-layout Unicode keyboard is whether to include both or all three keystrokes to make the same diacritical. Regardless if you include the keystrokes for the short, medium and wide varieties, they should all be assigned the same combining diacritical mark.

 

As for searching in Accordance, you do not have to put the diacriticals if you don't want to. And more so, if you put a long version when it really should be a short version, Accordance compensates for the error.

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Hmmmm . . . I've run into a bit of a snag.

 

I've been looking at Accordance's font pdf, and the three different positions (short/medium/long overstrikes) of each vowel confuse me.

 

Is it necessary to use these while in Accordance? Since we are (I would think) mainly searching, does three three versions effect that or will any of them do?

 

Would it make more difference if you were typing Hebrew into a typical word processor? I'm basically trying to figure out if I need to actually get all three into the keyboard. Besides, I'm not sure how I would -- all I know how to do Ukelele is to insert vowels I can't type. The two Hebrew fonts I currently have installed do not seem to have three different places of each vowel.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

- Alex

 

 

While typing in each respective font in Accordance, the program determines what diacritic or vowel to append to each character. The three (short, medium, and long) are based upon the character width. When using Yehudit, Helena, Sylvanus, etc. outside of Accordance (i.e., BBEdit, Mellel, etc.) you have to use the appropriate key strike to match the corresponding character width. As far as creating a keyboard character map, I am not sure what you need to do to ensure the correct diacritic to correspond to the correct width.

 

 

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The legacy font Yehudit needs three different widths for some diacriticals because it is displaying a fixed size glyph. However, this is unnecessary for a Unicode character. The font should compose the glyphs properly in each case.

But, you're confusing yourself a bit regarding the issue. The only question here in creating the Yehudit-layout Unicode keyboard is whether to include both or all three keystrokes to make the same diacritical. Regardless if you include the keystrokes for the short, medium and wide varieties, they should all be assigned the same combining diacritical mark.

 

As for searching in Accordance, you do not have to put the diacriticals if you don't want to. And more so, if you put a long version when it really should be a short version, Accordance compensates for the error.

 

Ah . . . so, to put it simply (I know little about fonts), I only need to include one of the widths on my keyboard and it'll all work out just fine?

 

- Alex

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Ah . . . so, to put it simply (I know little about fonts), I only need to include one of the widths on my keyboard and it'll all work out just fine?

 

- Alex

You only have to include one of the key combos for each diacritical. However, including all three would be the best form, if the idea is to create a Unicode Keyboard that someone used to the Yehudit layout could just start using immediately. Talking through a specific example may help:

 

For example, in the Yehudit layout, in order to add the

Segol ‏ֶ

underneath a character, you press

⇧r for the medium segol

⌥r for the long segol

⌥⇧r for the short segol.

However, within Accordance, even if you press enter a less appropriate width version, the app fixes it for you.

 

Now, in creating your Unicode keyboard, you would assign all three of those spots on the keyboard to U+05B6 Hebrew Point Segol. There is no short/medium/long versions to manually worry about. Another option would be to only assign the Medium version keystroke in each instance, which would free up the other two spots for you to add other glyphs to the keyboard.

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So, bringing together the replies of Joe Weaks and James T:

 

I would only need one of them for Accordance itself, but to type in other programs I would need all three. Furthermore, even in Accordance, though all three would be identical, it would be best to include all three so that people could hit whichever they're used to.

 

So it would seem best to have all three :). Now, how would I go about doing that? I've been thus far creating the keyboard with Ukelele and punching in each letter from another Hebrew keyboard I already have (Hebrew-ZC).??֥But none of the ones I have on my computer seem to have all three versions of those vowels, so I'm not sure how to enter them.

 

For reference's sake, the (Hebrew) keyboards I have are:

Hebrew

Hebrew QWERTY

Biblical Hebrew - SIL

Biblical Hebrew - Tiro

Hebrew-ZC

 

Thanks for all the help, guys. If I can get this all sorted all I'll certainly upload the keyboard here for others to use :).

- Alex

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So, bringing together the replies of Joe Weaks and James T:

 

I would only need one of them for Accordance itself, but to type in other programs I would need all three. Furthermore, even in Accordance, though all three would be identical, it would be best to include all three so that people could hit whichever they're used to.

 

You only *need* one of the key assignments for your Unicode keyboard as well. However, as you said, it might be best to include all three so that people could hit whichever they're used to. Having said that, surely 90% of folk are used to using the shift character, so not including the option or option-shift ones is probably not a big loss.

 

For finding the characters to copy and paste, I'd highly suggest downloading and using the outstanding app Unicode Checker.

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You only *need* one of the key assignments for your Unicode keyboard as well. However, as you said, it might be best to include all three so that people could hit whichever they're used to. Having said that, surely 90% of folk are used to using the shift character, so not including the option or option-shift ones is probably not a big loss.

 

For finding the characters to copy and paste, I'd highly suggest downloading and using the outstanding app Unicode Checker.

 

 

But that is only within Accordance (if I've understood the earlier posts correctly); if we were to type outside of the program (a word processor, for instance), then it seems (from what I've heard here) that all three are necessary.

 

If I can't manage to figure out how to enter all three, then I'll stay with the just the one (or add an identical one to each of three key slots, might as well). But thanks for the Unicode Checker link, I'll see if that can help me :).

 

- Alex

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But that is only within Accordance (if I've understood the earlier posts correctly); if we were to type outside of the program (a word processor, for instance), then it seems (from what I've heard here) that all three are necessary.

 

If I can't manage to figure out how to enter all three, then I'll stay with the just the one (or add an identical one to each of three key slots, might as well). But thanks for the Unicode Checker link, I'll see if that can help me :).

 

- Alex

 

 

Alex,

Some things are still a bit fuzzy, I think. Typing outside of Accordance but using the Yehudit legacy font does not require any "keyboard" other than normal US keyboard. In that instance, yes, you'd have to put the correct (short, med, long) diacritical to get the right look.

But who cares? This is not what your project is. Your project is to create a Unicode keyboard, that enters Unicode characters, but using the same keyboard layout as the old Yehudit layout. If you choose to add a diacritical into all three keystroke combinations, you have to use an identical code point. There are not short, medium and long versions of these unicode glyphs.

 

Joe

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Alex,

Some things are still a bit fuzzy, I think. Typing outside of Accordance but using the Yehudit legacy font does not require any "keyboard" other than normal US keyboard. In that instance, yes, you'd have to put the correct (short, med, long) diacritical to get the right look.

But who cares? This is not what your project is. Your project is to create a Unicode keyboard, that enters Unicode characters, but using the same keyboard layout as the old Yehudit layout. If you choose to add a diacritical into all three keystroke combinations, you have to use an identical code point. There are not short, medium and long versions of these unicode glyphs.

 

Joe

 

Hey Joe,

 

Yes, some things are still fuzzy :). But this is good stuff to learn, so thank you for the help. If the keyboard does not determine the shortness/mediumness/longness of the diacritical, then how does the font know which one to put? For the sake of a concrete example, let's say I was typing in Mellel. If I wished to type a pathach with a certain consonant, and that consonant needed a long diacritical, how would I tell it that while using a keyboard with only one diacritical?

 

I'm assuming that the font must do it automatically at that point, but I thought I check :D.

 

Also, even though I've already used it twice in this post, what exactly does a 'diacritical' refer to?

 

Again, thanks!

- Alex

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I'm probably not using 'diacritical' correctly. I simply mean any of the marking that surround a letter?vowels and other markings.

 

You are correct in your understanding of typing with a Unicode keyboard. If you add a Patah to a letter, the Mellel program and the particular Unicode font being used combines the two glyphs together appropriately. There is no long patah and short patah and medium patah in the set of Unicode Hebrew characters. There is only the patah, which is code U+05B7 incidentally (easily found using UnicodeChecker).

 

Have you read my little faq on introducing unicode to scholars?

Unicode: A Bible Scholar's Conceptual Introduction

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