From: Peter Kirk (peter.r.kirk@ntlworld.com)
Date: Tue Aug 12 2003 - 06:24:46 EDT
On 11/08/2003 18:03, John Cowan wrote:
>You don't have (nor do I) the vaguest idea why Microsoft produced
>this particular nonconforming implementation, or whether they
>consider it a bug or not.
>
>
Don't make assumptions about things you don't know anything about. I
have been working closely and personally with Microsoft's head of
typography on support for Hebrew and other scripts in Uniscribe. While I
don't happen to have detailed information on this particular point, I am
aware of some of the constraints that Microsoft has been under e.g. to
avoid the inefficiency of calling Uniscribe for rendering of plain text
in western languages. This is why they have been slow to support use of
arbitrary diacritics with Latin text. I think this issue may have been
fixed with the soon to be released new version of Uniscribe, and perhaps
the problem with spaces and diacritics has also been fixed. We'll see.
>
>
>>Surely the UTC should not create difficulties for
>>implementers and then just shout at them for getting things wrong. The
>>UTC should try to produce a standard which is workable without
>>unnecessary complications.
>>
>>
>
>This is sheer conjecture.
>
>
>
No, it is not. For one thing I have not said that the UTC has done
anything bad, and certainly not that it has done so deliberately, only
that it should not do so. But it is not just me who has pointed to the
difficulty for implementers of the space + diacritic convention which
the UTC defined (with inadequate forethought rather than malicious
intention), see also John Hudson's independent opinions and the failure
of Microsoft to implement it. I was wrong to suggest that the UTC is
shouting at implementers for getting things wrong though I think it
should so so if they do. But UTC members have told me to complain to
implementers for getting things wrong. As for my last statement, that is
simply my opinion. If you wish to disagree with it, do you prefer that
the UTC should deliberately produce an unworkable standard, or that it
should introduce unnecessary complications?
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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