question: private String produceEquivalentAlternation ( String source ) { int len = countChars ( source , 0 , 1 ) ; if ( source . length ( ) == len ) return source ; String base = source . substring ( 0 , len ) ; String combiningMarks = source . substring ( len ) ; String [ ] perms = producePermutations ( combiningMarks ) ; StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder ( source ) ; for ( int x = 0 ; x < perms . length ; x ++ ) { String next = base + perms [ x ] ; if ( x > 0 ) result . append ( "|" + next ) ; next = composeOneStep ( next ) ; if ( next != null ) result . append ( "|" + produceEquivalentAlternation ( next ) ) ; } return result . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Given a specific sequence composed of a regular character and combining marks that follow it, produce the alternation that will match all canonical equivalences of that sequence.