1) "Finally, in investigating the possible variant relations, Generation Panels should ignore cases where the relation is based exclusively on aspects of visual similarity."
I think this may mean variant code point relations, but certainly needs clarifying.
Will the chairs ask the Integration Panel about that? Or do we as a GP need to formulate that message?
If my understanding is correct it would mean that Latin o and the identical Armenian letter would not be declared universally as variant code points.
Terms like "identical" are tricky. There is a character in the Armenian script called "Armenian small letter oh" that looks like an italicized "Latin small letter o", but according to Dalby's "Dictionary of Languages", it is *not* the equivalent of the Latin small letter o"; instead, the "Armenian small letter vo" (which looks like an italicized superscripted n) is the equivalent of "Latin small letter o".
2) I shall save my comments on this point, as I would not want to influence people in a particular direction.
3) As you write, and also according to B.3.2 in the Procedure to develop and maintain the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone in respect of IDNA labels, mixed script labels at the Top Level currently seem unlikely. They do exist
at lower levels, usually involving the Latin script or Arabic numerals and another script.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this GP was for the use of Latin at the root, and our decisions are supposed to be based on that. If I'm right, then we can use the "single script" rule as a way of making our decisions.
If my understanding is correct, the issue is whole Armenian labels that are visually similar to whole Latin labels.
Sure, that could be. However, given that instruction to "ignore cases where the relation is based exclusively on aspects of visual similarity", that doesn't seem relevant. Worse, there are numerous scripts that have characters that will look like a vertical line ("Latin small letter l") or a horizontal line ("hyphen minus" and "low line"). I would hope that each GP with such a character is not expected to communicate with every other GP to find if they have such characters.
I think this is why we are being asked to comment.
Can we see the original request from the Armenian GP or from the Integration Panel? It would help us decide how best to respond.
--Paul Hoffman