Graham Douglas wrote:
And so to my question. I would very much like to explore using (or writing (eventually...)???) commands that let me "format" Arabic words etc as part of my notes. I have not explored this yet, so I apologise if this is already possible 'out of the box'. I just wanted to ask the experts here, before spending too much time exploring the wrong things!
The expert on the practical side of this would be Idris, but he is on the road for a while. If you want to make sure to get his attention, best would be to email him personally.
For example, I would like to be able to use colour with certain glyphys in (any location) within Arabic words. For example \somecommand{Arabic text} where \somecommand{...} would (for example) put certain glyphs in colour --- particularly for grammar, where you are writing out verb tables, or dual/plural endings for adjectives/nouns etc.
You can use \color in the middle of an arabic word without disrupting anything in the processing, so perhaps it would be good enough to just do something like this: \def\coloredalef{{\color[green]ا}} \catcode`ا=\active \defا{\coloredalef} but for more advanced stuff, node processing will be needed.
In essence, where do I need to start exploring to be able to write such things --- LuaTeX node processing, colour attributes etc??
I would have to say: the context source code (for now). There are no articles specifically on luatex node/attribute processing yet, just the reference manual. Best wishes, Taco