Re: Implementing Complex Unicode Scripts

From: Brendan Murray/DUB/Lotus (Brendan_Murray@Lotus.com)
Date: Tue Feb 20 2001 - 09:34:49 EST


"Charlie Jolly" <charlie@k-international.com> wrote:
> Does anybody know if there is a chart or table showing what OS's,
> Applications, Programming Languages support Unicode and in particular
what
> scripts?
You'll find some of this on
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/onlinedat/products.html.

> Should an open source script processing engine be part of the standard?
As I
> understand it if you want to develop Unicode solutions for complex
scripts
> then you either have to do it yourself or rely upon Uniscribe or ATSUI.
No - while the UTC tends to focus more on UI issues than ISO-10646, its
terms of reference do not include implementating standardised rendering
engines.

> Is the following a correct assumption?
>
> Unicode > Engine > Screen
Sounds about right.

> Fonts:
> Do fonts have to tie themselves to a script engine. Will an Opentype font
> for lets say Hindi such as MS Mangal work on an Apple OS or Linux?
It can: the OpenType specification is just that - Open. The original
TrueType spec was created with Apple, so my guess is that at least Windows
and MacOS can process OpenType fonts. I believe there is also a Linux
OpenType project, but I on't know the details.

> Or is
> this font tied to Uniscribe? If this is correct then shouldn't there be a
> better solution?
There are probably lots of good solutions better than those currently
available. However, Uniscribe and ATSUI provide a relatively simple
mechanism to handle complex scripts and they're available now, albeit
restricted to MS & Apple platforms.

According to my crystal ball, they will be superceded by some simpler,
standardised mechanism in the future (date indeterminate).

Brendan



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