This session will present a model for full support of Unicode in the text processing system of a software application. The key components of this model are Unicode input (keyboards and input methods), Unicode text editing, Unicode utilities (sorting, date/time strings, etc.), Unicode drawing (display and printing), and encoding conversion (between Unicode and other character encodings). These components of a text processing are general to applications on any computing platform.

This model will be applied to application development on the Mac OS. Two practical aspects of Unicode application development will be called out: First, the services provided the Mac OS that support Unicode applications will be described. A number of significant extensions to the Unicode support provided in Mac OS 8.5 (which is scheduled to ship at about the same time as IUC 13) will be described. In addition, plans for Unicode SDKs to be shipped in successive months will be outlined. Second, in conjunction with each of the system services described, the implications for developer adoption will be explained.

We hope that this session will give the Unicode community a better understanding of the support for Unicode that is provided on the Mac OS. In addition, we hope that it will give software developers on all platforms a good handle on the practical issues that must be addressed in developing a Unicode application.

This presentation will include demonstrations of key Unicode technologies introduced with Mac OS 8.5, i.e., Text Services Manager (TSM) 1.5 and Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging (ATSUI) 1.0. In addition, I hope to demonstrate beta or final versions of Apple's Unicode text engine and Unicode utilities.