Soft-Hyphen with Ukelele made keyboard layout

[Windsor]

Hello everyone:

I have created an Armenian test font with FontLab and used the Armenian hyphenation character in all three places of hyphenation: hyphen (002D, in Unicode), soft-hyphen (00AD), and the Armenian hyphen (058A), so that whenever I press the hyphen key the Armenian character will be used. I created an Armenian keyboard layout with Ukelele, and designated the right character into the right spot. I used the soft-hyphen character at cmd-hyphen, so that the soft-hyphen macro of Nisus will utilize it.
Now the problem:
1. Hard hyphenation shows up in the desired character design when I press hyphen in U.S. keyboard.
2. Soft-hyphenation changes into minus sign in U.S. keyboard.
3. Hard hyphenation shows up in the desired character in Armenia keyboard.
4. Soft-hyphenation changes into minus sign in Armenia keyboard.

How can I make 2 & 4 show the Armenian hyphenation instead of the minus sign (the regular hyphenation character). By the way, there is NO minus sign type of hyphenation in this test font. So, I am very sure the OS is using the default font's soft hyphen character, which looks like minus sign. I have noticed that the default font of Mac OS is Verdana, because when I activate the Show Keyboard Viewer, and the U.S. Keyboard is selected, the characters are shown as Verdana font, and when I switch to Armenia, the characters of Mshtakan font is displayed. When I press on cmd key, and look at the hyphen, I see Verdana's hyphenation character!! When I switch back to U.S., and press the cmd key, the same thing, hyphenation character in Verdana. Mshtakan font is part of the OS fonts, and it has ONLY Armenian characters with very few ASCII characters, like hyphen, comma, numbers, etc.
Any suggestions? Martin?
I can supply the font and the keyboard layout for your testing if you want. Let me know.

[Elbrecht]

Hi Windsor -

I wonder where you started from doing your Armenian keyboard - in your place I would have modified the system offered "Armenian - HM QWERTY" or "Armenian - Western QWERTY" - you never know about ALL behind the scene programming. In my eyes Ukele is good for cosmetics - that's why I always look for a good starter keyboard to modify my way then…

HE

[Windsor]

I did use the Armenian -Western Qwerty. And just modified it, that is switched the places of the characters. I also grabbed and dropped the soft-hyphen character from character viewer into the cmd-hyphen slot. In the beginning, when I did that, the box became empty!!! Then when I changed the font that Ukelele is displaying, into one of mine, and the character showed up. So, I am thinking there is some kind of problem with OS default font! Besides this problem, why would Nisus or any other program use the OS's default font when it comes to soft-hyphen, and not during the hard hyphen? Why change of font?

[Elbrecht]

Well Windsor -

I don't know next to nothing about Armenian - but your problem seems maybe language related?!? Did you activate Armenian "Language" and "Input Sources" in "System Preferences/Language & Text" and do you write in "Armenian" Language in NWP then?

HE

[Windsor]

Armenian language does not exist yet in the Mac. But I can type in Armenian in NWP. I don't think the problem is a language problem, because the problem is also with U.S. keyboard!

[Elbrecht]

Hi Windsor -

what about the below - Armenian Language in Lion System Preferences:



Hope this will help somehow!
HE

[Elbrecht]

Windsor again -

not knowing anything Armenian myself - soft hyphen does work somehow (see end of first line - but not showing the hypen then) in "Armenian" language with "Armenian" system font Mshtakan and "Armenian" QWERTY keyboard in NWP. How is YOUR font (with hyphen added in place of soft hyphen) doing - I wonder? Give it a try!



Good luck to you!
HE

[Windsor]

Then, as I suspected it IS a OS problem, since my computer runs Snow Leopard and Armenian does not show in the Language & Text System Preferences. Is there any workaround for Snow Leopard?

[Elbrecht]

Windsor -

Snow Leopard 10.6.8 HAS Armenian Language - you just have to activate it via Edit List. Only activated languages are displayed…

HE

PS: Why not Lion? Mountain Lion is ahead this month, and the text engine gets more advanced all the times!

[Windsor]

By the time I got your last answer, I found the Armenian language in the Edit menu and activated it. BUT! the problem persists. I am including a screen shot to show you how the hard-hyphen is correctly displayed with the Armenian hyphen (the top line) and how the soft-hyphen is NOT displayed correctly, and the minus sign is being displayed, when I have put the Armenian hyphenation character in 00AD box (the soft-hyphen code). So, is there anything else I should have done after putting Հայերեն in top of the list of the activated languages? By the way, in the menu that says Order for sorted list (in the language & Text dialog box) Armenian does not show up!

Also, the reason I haven't upgraded to Lion (or Mountain Lion) is that I am using MacBook Pro that does not run a 64 processor. I think I will be needing a new computer for Lion and up.

[Elbrecht]

Well Windsor -

no easy hack so far - better contact Michael Everson <everson@evertype.com> of http://www.evertype.com - he did the Mshtakan font. He is called the Bulldog of Unicode…

Good luck to you!
HE

PS: Soft hyphen is a zero-width character, so no glyph at all. It's up to the text/language engine behind to display Armenian hyphen!

[Windsor]

Thanks for the idea. I just wrote him and explained everything. See what will he say. Although another idea is going through my mind, but I would rather wait and see what Mr. Everson will say first.