Mark,
Sounds like a great present to the Unix world for the upcoming holidays!
Tex
On Dec 4, 6:28pm, Mark Leisher wrote:
> Subject: Unicode on Unix
> Since the number of Unix related questions seems to be rising, I
thought I
> would throw this in to tease everyone. There is a good possibility I
will be
> allowed to release a version of MUTT (Multilingual Unicode Text
Toolkit, our
> X11/Motif Unicode toolkit) to the net at large for free in the near
future.
>
> The free version may or may not have all of the things I mention below,
but
> should have many of them.
>
> Some details:
>
> o Aside from OSF Motif, built entirely from resources freely
available on
> the net and lots of elbow grease.
>
> o Known to run on most versions of Linux, SunOS, Solaris, and AIX4.
If I
> had access to other platforms (i.e. HP/UX), it would run on those
as
> well.
>
> o Supports Motif 1.1.4, 1.2.*, 2.0.1, and soon with 2.1. Rumor has
it that
> it also works with Lesstif, but I have not officially ported it
yet.
>
> o Does not depend on any Unicode, character set conversion, or input
method
> support from the OS or windowing system.
>
> o Converts between Unicode and around 90 different character sets and
> transliterations including many rarely seen. Character set
conversion is
> embedded in the API, so it is always available for
importing/exporting
> text in non-Unicode character sets.
>
> o Supports much of Unicode 2.0 with the glaring exception of the
Indic
> scripts and Tibetan which are under way at the moment. It even
renders
> mixed direction text pretty darn well.
>
> o Real crowd pleasers: it supports Ethiopic and Klingon!
>
> o Has around 80 different input methods for various scripts.
>
> o No artificial limitations on mixing scripts together. You want to
mix all
> supported scripts in one document? No problem.
>
> o Provides text, label, push button, and list widgets as well as a
few other
> custom widgets we use for various things.
>
> o A simple text editor which demonstrates many of MUTT's
capabilities.
>
> o Numerous other handy features.
>
> Some of the things MUTT can't do yet and other flaws:
>
> o No culturally correct sorting.
>
> o No access to locale data like numeric and money formats.
>
> o No PushButton and Cascade buttons in menus (Motif is picky about
what
> classes of widgets can appear in menus).
>
> o As mentioned before, no Indic scripts or Tibetan yet.
>
> o No vertical support for Mongolian, Han, and other vertically
oriented
> scripts.
>
> o It is fairly slow on older boxes (i.e. Sparc IPC).
>
> o It is pretty big (around 3M for source code alone).
>
> o Font handling is limited to fonts already arranged in Unicode 2.0
order.
>
> o Documentation is lousy.
>
> o Various other things I'm sure people will find annoying.
>
> The (soon to be, I hope) freely available version of MUTT will be a
little
> crude in some respects, but hey, you get what you pay for :-) I
suspect once
> it is loose on the net, it will rapidly improve in quality.
>
> I won't be notifying anyone personally, so please don't ask. Stay
tuned, this
> list is the first place NetMUTT will be announced.
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> mleisher@crl.nmsu.edu
> Mark Leisher "A designer knows he has achieved
perfection
> Computing Research Lab not when there is nothing left to add, but
> New Mexico State University when there is nothing left to take away."
> Box 30001, Dept. 3CRL -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
> Las Cruces, NM 88003
>
>-- End of excerpt from Mark Leisher
--
-------------------------------------------------------
Tex Texin
Manager International Products
Progress Software Corp. Voice: +1-781-280-4271
14 Oak Park Fax: +1-781-280-4949
Bedford, MA 01730 USA
http://www.progress.com texin@bedford.progress.com
-------------------------------------------------------
Klaatu Berata Nicto
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