[XeTeX] combining characters in isolation

[Michiel Kamermans]

Mike,

> If I do
>    \newfontfamily\bengalifont[]{Bangla}
> it works fine; I don't get the dashed circle.  In fact the space 
> character doesn't even have to be inside the scope of the script.
>
> But if I do
>    \newfontfamily\bengalifont[Script=Bengali]{Bangla}
> I get the dashed circle.  So apparently setting the script makes it 
> pay attention to whether there is a Bengali base character for the 
> combining character to combine with.  But not specifying the script 
> causes other problems, namely the combining characters don't combine 
> correctly with a Bengali base character when there is one (which of 
> course is most of the time).
>
> Guess I could fix my original problem without breaking the output and 
> without making the XML non-portable by modifying our code that tags 
> Bengali text during the conversion from XML to XeLaTeX...

Luckily this is a far simpler problem than the original one! Simply 
define two fonts to be used:

\newfontfamily\bengalialphabetonlyfont[]{Bangla}
\newfontfamily\bengalifont[Script=Bengali]{Bangla}

Then use the first only for your script-illustration tables, and the 
second as blanket font for your Bengali text.

- Mike "Pomax" Kamermans
nihongoresources.com