bug#56323: 29.0.50; [v2] Add new customisable phonetic Tamil input method

[Visuwesh]

[வெள்ளி ஜூலை 01, 2022] Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> Unfortunately, string-lessp does not do the job.  (string-lessp "ஞ" "ஜ")
>> should return t but it returns nil probably because ஞ's codepoint is
>> 2974 and ஜ's codepoint is 2972.  But ஜ is not even part of the "core"
>> Tamil characters and hence should come at last.  This is why I went with
>> defining an alist with the _actual_ order of the characters.
>
> Please tell what is the actual order of the characters.  That is,
> where is that order defined, and by what criteria?

I'm not sure what you mean "where is that order defined," I don't think
there is a definition per se, it just happens to be so.

There are two "classes" of consonants: those that are part of Tamil
(let's call them "core") and those borrowed from Sanskrit.  When one
writes the consonants in order, the core consonants come first then the
Sanskrit ones.  You can find the order of the core consonants in
wikipedia here in the table titled "Tamil consonants":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script#Letters

We need not worry too much about the order of Sanskrit consonants, we
just need to ensure that they come after the core consonants.  You can
find these Sanskrit consonants in the table titled "Grantha consonants
in Tamil" in the same link.

I hope this is clear.

As for the criteria, it is simply "Tamil consonants then the Sanskrit
consonants."

> I'll look into the other issues later.

Thanks.