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UBC INDIC
16
(virāma),
a''), and middle mark ), and middle mark, (after a consonant) is needed. Members of this additional set are placed, as far as possible, near the corresponding mark needed for letters other than 5 and, in the क same keyboard. Exceptions: anusvāra needed over and virama needed under o and for the former, note its association with and for the latter, 4.14 below and the fact that the key is almost the same, although the keyboard differs.
4.11 Full advantage has been taken of the ability of keys 3.2.3, 3.2.7, 3.2.8, and 3.4.6 to produce two fonts (see note 4 above). The accent marks most commonly needed in presenting Vedic texts have been accommodated in mode 'a' of three of these keys.
4.12 The nukta mark required in the writing of many words of Perso-Arabic origin that have entered Indian languages has been added and placed on the very last key (4.4.10), partly because, unlike most other markers of its type (see 5.3 below), it needs to be typed before the character to which it belongs."
5. I spent considerable time in making the nukta conform to the principle expressed in 5.3. However, adherence to that principle would have necessitated creation of at least three (possibly, four) nukta keys, for no single nuktā dot fits well under the letters क, ख, ग, ड, ज, and फ and half-forms of some of them. In a sense, it befits a marker coming from the tradition of right-to-left writing that it go against the general principle accepted for scripts that are written left-to-right!
