W.r.t. Eva and Cuva, the purpose of the two is very different.
Eva is intended to represent electronically the text as completely and closely as possible, while using an alphabetical representation, and allowing rendition through a TT font.
As such, it is an improvement over the previous most common alphabet (Currier) because the latter has 36 symbols (including numbers), and it does not allow to represent many of the ligatures. It also has no way to represent the so-called 'weirdoes'.
However, Eva is not suitable for character-based statistics because things that look very much like single characters ( ch iin ) are represented by multiple characters.
To do statistics, one should devise one's own alphabet based on one's own assumptions about what are single characters. One also has to decide what to do with ligatures and weirdoes.
(Note that this can be done by a script, using an Eva transcription as input. It is therefore not at all a big effort).
Cuva is just one example of that, that I have been using. I don't think it is in any way 'optimal'.
Eva is intended to represent electronically the text as completely and closely as possible, while using an alphabetical representation, and allowing rendition through a TT font.
As such, it is an improvement over the previous most common alphabet (Currier) because the latter has 36 symbols (including numbers), and it does not allow to represent many of the ligatures. It also has no way to represent the so-called 'weirdoes'.
However, Eva is not suitable for character-based statistics because things that look very much like single characters ( ch iin ) are represented by multiple characters.
To do statistics, one should devise one's own alphabet based on one's own assumptions about what are single characters. One also has to decide what to do with ligatures and weirdoes.
(Note that this can be done by a script, using an Eva transcription as input. It is therefore not at all a big effort).
Cuva is just one example of that, that I have been using. I don't think it is in any way 'optimal'.