Re: MS Language Packs

From: Zhenbin Xu (zbxu@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Aug 06 1997 - 03:42:26 EDT


This give me the impression that upon the shipping of NT 5, those
multilingual software companies such as Gamma and Accent should find no
more profit from this market. It is interesting that Gamma claims it
provides multilingual solution for Microsoft (IE for example). There are
also some other companies invested in developing multilingual controls
(OCX). It seems that Microsoft once again put those companies' investment
into dead end. They'd better stop those projects right now. (It is a real
matter of concern for me since I am involved in the develop of a
multilingual word processor and edit control. Sadly enough?)

It is a natural tendency that the OS provide native multilingual support.
However, the fact that different OS provide different level of multilingual
support implies that cross-platform (including UN*X) multilingual products
may still be welcomed by developers. I have mentioned that Memphis may not
(??) provide a complete solution as NT 5, just like the way Windows 95 and
Windows NT 4 do. Developers have to pay attention to subtle discrepancies
existed among different Win 32 implementations. May it be a chance that
those companies get something out of their investment? Or they are
definitely doomed? Developing light-weighted multilingual products for
embedded system (such as ATM) may be the only way for them to survive.

Thanks,
Zhenbin Xu (Kevin)

----------
> From: Lori Brownell <loribr@microsoft.com>
> To: Multiple Recipients of <unicode@unicode.org>
> Subject: FW: MS Language Packs
> Date: Tuesday, August 05, 1997 10:28 AM
>
> When you say automatically, I would have to say no, because it does
> depend on how the app is written. If the app is Unicode and is not
> doing anything "bad" (meaning putting out characters one at a time,
> assuming particular glyph metrics, etc.) and/or is using standard edit
> controls (including Rich Edit 2) and system functions then yes the app
> should gain multilingual capabilities somewhat automatically. Notepad
> is a good example. We have not made any code changes to Notepad itself
> and it now supports display of any supported script in any combination,
> including Greek, Cyrillic, Kanji, Arabic, Thai, etc. We are working on
> guidelines and sample code for s/w developers to outline the description
> of "good" app behavior.
>
> A user will gain language support, only after installing it from the
> Regional Settings applet in the Control Panel. Everything needed for
> these languages will be shipped on the NT CD and is installable during
> setup or after via Regional Settings. All Win32 functions and controls
> provided in the OS will have multilingual support. There are not
> separate controls for the complex languages. The goal is to ease
> development by providing full multilingual capabilities by using
> standard Win32 APIs, such that the same binary will run anywhere in the
> world. There is obviously a slight performance impact if you install
> all of the language support, but it is not noticeable to me on my
> Pentium 133 machine w/32 MB RAM. For a hint of what is to come in NT5,
> you could check out the Arabic, Hebrew or Thai enabled versions of NT4.
>
> Thanks - Lori
>



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