Methods of character shaping

Implement character shaping separately from other system components. However, character shaping should be accessible as a utility by other system components.

The system may use character shaping in the following ways:

• As the user enters data into the computer, the system uses character shaping to shape the characters. The system stores these characters in their shaped format.

  This method avoids the need to use character shaping every time these characters are displayed. This method is meant for static data such as menus and help. This method requires preprocessing for correct sorting, searching, or indexing of the characters.

  The characters may need reshaping after processing for proper presentation.

• As the user enters data into the computer, the system stores the characters in their unshaped format.

  This method allows for sorting, searching or indexing of the characters. However, the system must use character shaping every time the characters are displayed.

Base shapes are isolated shapes that were not generated by character shaping. Use base shapes during editing, searching for character strings, or other text operations. Use shaping only when the text is displayed or printed. If characters are stored in their shaped form, the system must deshape them before sorting, collating, searching, or indexing. Character shapes that are not shape-determined according to their position in a string are needed for specific character-handling applications, as well as for communication with different coding environments.