On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Bob Hallissy wrote:
> It has been my impression that many Persion applications use
> the Arabic YEH code point (Windows character 237, U+064A) for
> the Farsi Yeh, and then depend on the font to have been
> modified to show the final and isolate without dots. This, of
> course, would not be considered "correct Unicode", but it was a
> way to adapt Arabic software to Farsi needs. Similar hacks, if
> I may call them that, are typically made with a couple of other
> characters, namely Teh Marbuta (Windows 201, U+0629) and Kaf
> (223, U+0643), to get the correct Farsi shapes.
I've not heard anything about the Teh Marbuta in this regard. But I know
about the YEH and KAF used instead of FARSI YEH and KEHEH. The problem
with YEH is still there when someone uses the CP1256, since that does not
have the FARSI YEH.
> With wider Unicode coverage from Microsoft and other vendors
> (albeit with occasional bugs as you have pointed out), these
> hacks are no longer necessary. But there is surely a large body
> of Farsi text already encoded using the hacks. What is the
> general mood of Persian software industry towards this problem:
> Are they moving rapidly to Unicode or are they staying with the
> old? Is a standard mechanism (e.g., import/export filters)
> being developed for migrating and exchanging the data?
The volume seems to be Word documents only. Many people are writing
convertors to make these OK. We are also among the convertor writers.
Also few ones are moving rapidly to Unicode. The Worders want their
WYSIWYG. They only want to edit and print their old docs. So they install
the old fonts on their newer OS-es, and thing go OK for them.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:21:05 EDT