Interpretation

Introduction

Grascii is ambiguous, and one of its most prominent types of ambiguity is a consequence of multi-character strokes, or strokes that are represented by more than one character.

Consider the Grascii string NTN. It may represent:

  • NT-N: The NT under blend followed by an N

  • N-TN: N followed by the TN over blend

  • N-T-N: N followed by T followed by N with sharp joinings

Each of the above is a possible interpretation of NTN, or a breakdown of the string into strokes, annotations, and other symbols.

It can be seen that ambiguity arises from:

  1. Multi-character strokes that consist of characters that are single-character strokes. i.e. NT consists of N and T.

  2. Multi-character strokes whose last character is also a first character for other multi-character strokes. i.e. NT ends with T and TN starts with T.

Given all of these possibilities, how should NTN be interpreted?

The Canonical Interpretation

The canonical interpretation is based on Gregg principles, the nature of the Grascii language, and a little bit of pragmatism. It aims to be the least surprising interpretation of a Grascii string. That said, understanding the rules in the following section is by no means a prerequisite for using Grascii. Rather, they are targeted toward advanced Grascii users and developers.

Rules

The following rules govern the breakdown of a Grascii string into its canonical interpretation:

  1. Prioritize multi-character strokes over single-character strokes.

    Example: DF is the DF blend, not D-F.

    Why: Gregg created blends to be used.

    Important

    If the candidate multi-character stroke sequence is followed by an invalid annotation for that multi-character stroke, it must be treated as single-character strokes.

    For instance, SS, would be S-S, because the , annotation can only apply to S and not SS.

  2. Prioritize SH over multi-character strokes that end in S such as SS/XS.

    Example: SSH is S-SH.

    Why: Prioritizing the other strokes could lead to a dangling H which is not a valid single-character stroke.

  3. Prioritize TH over multi-character strokes that end in T such as JNT/PNT/NT/MT/DT.

    Example: DTH is D-TH.

    Why: Prioritizing the other strokes could lead to a dangling H which is not a valid single-character stroke.

  4. Prioritize TN/DN/TM/DM over NT/ND/MT/MD.

    Example: NTN is N-TN, not NT-N.

    Why: Gregg Shorthand Preanniversary Manual (1916), Seventh Lesson, General Exercise, Note (b):

    Where it is possble to use either ten, den, or ent, end, the ten, den blend is given the preference.

  5. If no priorities from rules 2-4 apply, prioritize multi-character strokes that appear earlier in the string over multi-character strokes that appear later.

    Example: NDV is ND-V, not N-DV.

    Why: Assembling multi-character strokes from left-to-right is most natural to readers and writers.