Re: Good CJK distro

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Tobias" == Tobias Diedrich <ranma@example.com> writes:

    Tobias> "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com> wrote:

    >> That's not multilingual support then.

    Tobias> Well actually i can use them, but it's not working well
    Tobias> with applications that don't use unicode. For example I
    Tobias> had to rename the Startmenü [Start Menu in english]
    Tobias> Directory because sometimes new entries would go to the
    Tobias> (previously not existing) Startmenu Directory.

That's really evil.

    Tobias> And with all german applications that don't use Unicode
    Tobias> strings the japanese codepage is used when displaying
    Tobias> characters so I see Kanji instead of umlauts.

This shouldn't happen with X11, since the application has to request
fonts for itself.

    Tobias> Of couse this problem can not really be solved without
    Tobias> using Unicode (Which NT always supported IIRC), so I think
    Tobias> the applications are to blame for this.

Actually, it can be solved, and has been for nearly forty years, by
ISO 2022 (neé ECMA 35 IIRC).  But nobody really supports ISO 2022 very
well, except maybe TRON.

    Tobias> I kinda expect to have this kind of trouble with Unix too,
    Tobias> because most applications still are not using unicode.

Well, Unix does support ISO 2022 a lot better than the MSFT world
does.  It is very possible to use Japanese in a German-by-default
environment and vice versa, and simultaneously for that matter.  All
it requires is kterm, an appropriate set of input methods, and 8-bit
clean applications.  Or Emacs/Mule.

    Tobias> I was asking this because I was thinking of looking into
    Tobias> this part of the kernel if I find enough spare time for
    Tobias> that. I don't like that you have to run a special program
    Tobias> to get CJK console support.  And it shouldn't be all that
    Tobias> difficult to enhance the frame buffer console to do that.

But it would be big; you really don't want to load up a whole Unicode
font into kernel (nonswappable) space.  And it would tend to break the
formatting of all standard utilities unless you are very careful about
the assumptions made by the localized libc functions.


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