Follow-up from here.
The default in Glyph’s baked-in glyph data is to order characters numerically by the (hex/binary) Unicode codepoint value. Obvious though that may seem, characters are added to the Unicode standard on an ongoing base, being assigned codepoints of code chart slots left empty in forgoing releases. Consequently, characters tend to end up in a sequence which does not necessarily have any intrinsic linguistic or otherwise meaningful value, but only reflects the insertion order in the Unicode standard.
The purpose of ordering characters and glyphs within a font (i.e assigning consecutive GIDs) is to help end users easily find and pick characters from a glyph palette. While there are of course many ways to arrange letters and sorts [sic :-)], I think alphabetical sorting makes most sense, since end users do know the order of the letters in an alphabet, Unicode bit order not so much. That’s why I sort glyphs in my fonts alphabetically, uppercase first, followed by lowercase (at least in bicameral scripts), grouped letter by letter, preceded by case alternates, if any, each followed by stylistic alternates, if any. E.g. A.titl a.sc A a a.calt. But it’s a tedious manual work…
Point in case [sic :-p] for the Coptic. In the newly proposed sort order the sequence starts with Ϣ ϣ Ϥ ϥ Ϧ ϧ Ϩ ϩ Ϫ ϫ Ϭ ϭ Ϯ ϯ (U+03E2…U+03EF), only then to be followed by Ⲁⲁ Ⲃⲃ Ⲅⲅ… (~ABC…). That’s because a former version of the Unicode standard assumed Greek characters could be used for encoding Coptic, only adding Coptic letters absent in the Greek alphabet, putting those in the left-over slots within he Greek code chart. Later it was agreed upon to grant the Coptic script its own characters and code chart(s), while the former letters obviously kept their lower-ranking codepoint, resulting in a numerical sort order which has the lesser used letters put first…
IANAL (I am not a linguist⸮) of oriental languages, but rely on Wikipedia to infer correct/traditional alphabetical sort order for foreign languages and scripts, along with Carl Faulmann’s 1880 standard Buch der Schrift. As with many other Euro-Semitic scripts, in Coptic the order of the letters basically is that of the Greek, c.q. original Phoenician, alphabet, more ore less phonetically-associatively inserted with indigenous letters, appended with deprecated letters used for counting. But my sources are not always exhaustive here, and by lack of a standard it’s not only tedious, but also an error-prone process.
Luckily there is a standard, though! Unicode is after all more than about indexing characters alone, and we may happily use Unicode Collation Charts for proper and standardized sorting. For the Coptic this is: https://www.unicode.org/charts/collation/chart_Coptic.html
Below is the glyph list for Coptic, using glyph names as proposed by @GeorgSeifert here, but arranged following the Unicode collation chart cited above. Nota bene: Ⳬⳬ Ⳳⳳ Ⳮⳮ are missing from the Georg’s list, hence need a glyph name still.
Besides the little Coptic case study, here then is my proposal, generalized: Could Glyphs built-in glyph data use Unicode Collation Order for proper alphabetical glyph sorting, instead of numerical character codepoint values?
| Unicode | glyph name | |
|---|---|---|
| uni2C80 | Ⲁ | Alfa-coptic |
| uni2C81 | ⲁ | alfa-coptic |
| uni2C82 | Ⲃ | Vida-coptic |
| uni2C83 | ⲃ | vida-coptic |
| uni2C84 | Ⲅ | Gamma-coptic |
| uni2C85 | ⲅ | gamma-coptic |
| uni2C86 | Ⲇ | Dalda-coptic |
| uni2C87 | ⲇ | dalda-coptic |
| uni2C88 | Ⲉ | Eie-coptic |
| uni2C89 | ⲉ | eie-coptic |
| uni2CB6 | Ⲷ | Cryptogrammiceie-coptic |
| uni2CB7 | ⲷ | cryptogrammiceie-coptic |
| uni2C8A | Ⲋ | Sou-coptic |
| uni2C8B | ⲋ | sou-coptic |
| uni2C8C | Ⲍ | Zata-coptic |
| uni2C8D | ⲍ | zata-coptic |
| uni2C8E | Ⲏ | Hate-coptic |
| uni2C8F | ⲏ | hate-coptic |
| uni2C90 | Ⲑ | Thethe-coptic |
| uni2C91 | ⲑ | thethe-coptic |
| uni2C92 | Ⲓ | Iauda-coptic |
| uni2C93 | ⲓ | iauda-coptic |
| uni2C94 | Ⲕ | Kapa-coptic |
| uni2C95 | ⲕ | kapa-coptic |
| uni2CB8 | Ⲹ | dialectPkapa-coptic |
| uni2CB9 | ⲹ | dialectpkapa-coptic |
| uni2C96 | Ⲗ | Laula-coptic |
| uni2C97 | ⲗ | laula-coptic |
| uni2C98 | Ⲙ | Mi-coptic |
| uni2C99 | ⲙ | mi-coptic |
| uni2C9A | Ⲛ | Ni-coptic |
| uni2C9B | ⲛ | ni-coptic |
| uni2CBA | Ⲻ | dialectPni-coptic |
| uni2CBB | ⲻ | dialectpni-coptic |
| uni2CBC | Ⲽ | Cryptogrammicni-coptic |
| uni2CBD | ⲽ | cryptogrammicni-coptic |
| uni2C9C | Ⲝ | Ksi-coptic |
| uni2C9D | ⲝ | ksi-coptic |
| uni2C9E | Ⲟ | O-coptic |
| uni2C9F | ⲟ | o-coptic |
| uni2CA0 | Ⲡ | Pi-coptic |
| uni2CA1 | ⲡ | pi-coptic |
| uni2CA2 | Ⲣ | Ro-coptic |
| uni2CA3 | ⲣ | ro-coptic |
| uni2CA4 | Ⲥ | Sima-coptic |
| uni2CA5 | ⲥ | sima-coptic |
| uni2CA6 | Ⲧ | Tau-coptic |
| uni2CA7 | ⲧ | tau-coptic |
| uni2CA8 | Ⲩ | Ua-coptic |
| uni2CA9 | ⲩ | ua-coptic |
| uni2CAA | Ⲫ | Fi-coptic |
| uni2CAB | ⲫ | fi-coptic |
| uni2CAC | Ⲭ | Khi-coptic |
| uni2CAD | ⲭ | khi-coptic |
| uni2CAE | Ⲯ | Psi-coptic |
| uni2CAF | ⲯ | psi-coptic |
| uni2CB0 | Ⲱ | Oou-coptic |
| uni2CB1 | ⲱ | oou-coptic |
| uni2CBE | Ⲿ | OouOld-coptic |
| uni2CBF | ⲿ | oouOld-coptic |
| uni2CC0 | Ⳁ | Sampi-coptic |
| uni2CC1 | ⳁ | sampi-coptic |
| uni03E2 | Ϣ | Shei-coptic |
| uni03E3 | ϣ | shei-coptic |
| uni2CEB | Ⳬ | |
| uni2CEC | ⳬ | |
| uni2CC2 | Ⳃ | SheiCrossed-coptic |
| uni2CC3 | ⳃ | sheiCrossed-coptic |
| uni2CC4 | Ⳅ | SheiOld-coptic |
| uni2CC5 | ⳅ | sheiOld-coptic |
| uni2CC6 | Ⳇ | EshOld-coptic |
| uni2CC7 | ⳇ | eshOld-coptic |
| uni03E4 | Ϥ | Fei-coptic |
| uni03E5 | ϥ | fei-coptic |
| uni03E6 | Ϧ | Khei-coptic |
| uni03E7 | ϧ | khei-coptic |
| uni2CF2 | Ⳳ | |
| uni2CF3 | ⳳ | |
| uni2CC8 | Ⳉ | KheiAkhmimic-coptic |
| uni2CC9 | ⳉ | kheiAkhmimic-coptic |
| uni03E8 | Ϩ | Hori-coptic |
| uni03E9 | ϩ | hori-coptic |
| uni2CCA | Ⳋ | HoriDialectP-coptic |
| uni2CCB | ⳋ | horiDialectP-coptic |
| uni2CCC | Ⳍ | HoriOld-coptic |
| uni2CCD | ⳍ | horiOld-coptic |
| uni2CCE | Ⳏ | HaOld-coptic |
| uni2CCF | ⳏ | haOld-coptic |
| uni2CD0 | Ⳑ | HaLshaped-coptic |
| uni2CD1 | ⳑ | haLshaped-coptic |
| uni2CD2 | Ⳓ | HeiOld-coptic |
| uni2CD3 | ⳓ | heiOld-coptic |
| uni2CD4 | Ⳕ | HatOld-coptic |
| uni2CD5 | ⳕ | hatOld-coptic |
| uni03EA | Ϫ | Gangia-coptic |
| uni03EB | ϫ | gangia-coptic |
| uni2CED | Ⳮ | |
| uni2CEE | ⳮ | |
| uni2CD6 | Ⳗ | GangiaOld-coptic |
| uni2CD7 | ⳗ | gangiaOld-coptic |
| uni03EC | Ϭ | Shima-coptic |
| uni03ED | ϭ | shima-coptic |
| uni2CD8 | Ⳙ | DjaOld-coptic |
| uni2CD9 | ⳙ | djaOld-coptic |
| uni2CDA | Ⳛ | ShimaOld-coptic |
| uni2CDB | ⳛ | shimaOld-coptic |
| uni2CDC | Ⳝ | Shima-nubian |
| uni2CDD | ⳝ | shima-nubian |
| uni03EE | Ϯ | Dei-coptic |
| uni03EF | ϯ | dei-coptic |
| uni2CB2 | Ⲳ | dialectPalef-coptic |
| uni2CB3 | ⲳ | dialectpalef-coptic |
| uni2CB4 | Ⲵ | AinOld-coptic |
| uni2CB5 | ⲵ | ainOld-coptic |
| uni2CDE | Ⳟ | Ngi-nubian |
| uni2CDF | ⳟ | ngi-nubian |
| uni2CE0 | Ⳡ | Nyi-nubian |
| uni2CE1 | ⳡ | nyi-nubian |
| uni2CE2 | Ⳣ | Wau-nubian |
| uni2CE3 | ⳣ | wau-nubian |
| uni2CE4 | ⳤ | kai-coptic |
| uni2CE5 | ⳥ | miro-coptic |
| uni2CE6 | ⳦ | piro-coptic |
| uni2CE7 | ⳧ | stauros-coptic |
| uni2CE8 | ⳨ | tauro-coptic |
| uni2CE9 | ⳩ | khiro-coptic |
| uni2CEA | ⳪ | shimasima-coptic |
| uni2CF9 | ⳹ | fullstop-nubian |
| uni2CFA | ⳺ | directquestion-nubian |
| uni2CFB | ⳻ | indirectquestion-nubian |
| uni2CFC | ⳼ | versedivider-nubian |
| uni2CFD | ⳽ | onehalf-coptic |
| uni2CFE | ⳾ | fullstop-coptic |
| uni2CFF | ⳿ | morphologicaldivider-coptic |