Talk:Sinhala script/GA1

GA Review

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This may be a bit picky, but it's actually somewhat hard to sort out Sinhala alphabet support, so I'm going to have to suggest that a full chart, setting out the entire Sinhala alphabet as a graphic would... probably be necessary for this to make GA. Otherwise, it looks pretty good, except I might like to see a little bit more information on the archaic Sinhala numeral system, as part of the history.

Contact me when this is done, and I'll re-review. Shoemaker's Holiday (talk) 01:12, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to put in my two cents and mention that yeah, it's not just Shoemaker's computer; I couldn't get the text to render either. I was actually about to do a review but I spent about 45 minutes trying to find the right support to get the text to show, and nothing worked, so I gave up. I'm using Firefox 3.something and I have a lot of complex scripts installed on my computer, so if I can't get the text to show then I would imagine a lot of other people can't, either. I'm glad Shoemaker took the initiative to bring it up here. —Politizer^{( talk • contribs )} 03:54, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

I guess I am the main editor of this article, so here my reply. The font support for Sinhala is clearly suboptimal, and I guess most people will not have the necessary fonts installed, let alone rendering support. This is why all the tables have a *png-version, for which you do not need the fonts. You can click on the link on the bottom of the tables to see them. The content is thus accessible to anyone, whether they have the fonts installed or not. All tables combined give you a complete overview over the independent glyphs. Making the image version the default would make the article visually more pleasing to most of the public, but might annoy people who do have the fonts installed. Any opinions on whether to prefer unicode, png, or a combination of both?

The archaic Sinhala numeral system mentioned above is so incredibly archaic that it is not mentioned in any Sinhala grammar or article I am aware of. The referenced webpage is the only source, so I am not sure if this would even pass WP:V and should be included. Any more material on the numerals would probably be OR. Jasy jatere (talk) 08:31, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

There is an external link to the entire Sinhala alphabet (600+ glyphs). Given the size of the alphabet, I am not sure whether the full text should be included inline, but I could make a similar table to store on WP itself. Not sure though whether this would make any difference to the reader, they might just as well click the external link. Jasy jatere (talk) 08:31, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

added a [show] button for Sinhala_alphabet#Consonants. Tell me if that would solve your problem and I will add it for the other tables as well. Jasy jatere (talk) 12:24, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I think it's less of a problem with the tables; the "Display this table as an image" link you had up before using {{show}} is probably fine, I think. (I apologize if this message is a contradiction of the suggestions I made in a hurry earlier in the weekend.) I think the main issue is the inline text that doesn't render. For example, in the second paragraph of the lead-in (reproduced here:

Sinhala is often considered two alphabets, or an alphabet with another alphabet, due to the presence of two different sets of letters. The core set, known as the śuddha siṃhala (Pure Sinhala, ශුද්ධ සිංහල) or eḷu hōḍiya (Eḷu alphabet එළු හෝඩිය), can represent all native phonemes. In order to render Sanskrit and Pali words, an extended set, the miśra siṃhala (Mixed Sinhala, මිශ්‍ර සිංහල), is available.)

from a reader's point of view, it's a pain to have to scroll down to where the tables are. My first suggestion would be to make long skinny images of the text (images that are the same size as the type here, and would fit inline)...but that does raise the problem you mentioned earlier, that it might be annoying to people who already have the fonts installed. I'm still trying to think of a good way to get around that. —Politizer^{( talk • contribs )} 20:48, 12 October 2008 (UTC)

Your new setup (with the image as a reference, in the lead-in) looks to me like the best solution we've seen so far, and I think it's fine for the places where Sinhala is within parentheses, naming something that's already been named, as in the example above. The only places where I think it's important that we somehow get the images in-line are parts where the article actually talks about particular Sinhala graphs and discusses them (as in the segment reproduced below, from Characteristics:)

• • Thus, for example, the basic form of the letter k is ක "ka". For "ki", a small arch is placed over the ක: කි. This replaces the inherent /a/ by /i/. It is also possible to have no vowel following a consonant. In order to produce such a pure consonant, a special marker, the hal kirīma has to be added: ක්. This marker suppresses the inherent vowel.

For something like that, I think it would probably be nice to have the image right there, so the reader doesn't have to go back and forth. Since I can't think of anything better, maybe we could just have the image and the text reproduced next to each other? (That way the text is there for readers who have support and want to be able to search the page for it, copy & paste it, or whatever; and the image is there so that people who don't have rendering can still read along without having to jump between the article and the images at the bottom.) How would that look? —Politizer^{( talk • contribs )} 17:06, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

added an img with the ka/k/ki stuff and put description in the caption Jasy jatere (talk) 08:07, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

1. Well-written:

   (a) the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct Y; and

   (b) it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation Y.

2. Verifiable with no original research:

   (a) it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline Y, well enough;

   (b) reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose) Y; and

   (c) it contains no original research Y, as far as I can tell.

3. Broad in its coverage:

   (a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic Y; and

   (b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style) Y.

4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each Y, since there are no viewpoints to express.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute Y.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:

   (a) media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content Y; and

   (b) media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions Y.

Passed. --DendodgeTalk^Contribs 22:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)