Unicode and Word 97

[bpj at netg.se]

At 17:58 2.5.1997 +0100, Christopher Fynn wrote:

>Actually Windows 97 contains much better support for Unicode
>than Windows 95 and - when applications are available to
>take advantage of it - you should be able to easily generate *all*
>the diacritics necessary for transliterating Indian scripts
>as well as those scripts themselves in Windows 97.
>
>Windows 97 supports all the Unicode character pages
>not just the WGL4 sub set that was intoduced with Win 95.
>
>As for fonts not working - many font development tools
>generate poor quality TrueType fonts or fonts with
>missing table information. Some of these tables were not
>required by Windows 3.1x or Windows '95 (although they
>have been in the spec for years).
>
>Windows 97 requires some of these additional tables and
>if fonts have been made without them they may not work.
>
>Word 97 does contain Unicode support.
>
>Microsoft seem to be developing add on language packs for most
>Unicode scripts and languages which will be available for
>Windows 97 & NT 5. AFAIK these language-packs should contain
>fonts for the appropriate script(s) and a keyboard driver and
>it it will be possible to switch bettween installed IME's / keyboard
>layouts /scripts/ fonts on the fly.

AFAIK there is as yet no support for underdot within Unicode. Someone I
know used cedilla instead, but this is not found on {d}...


>To make Microsoft aware of the demand for an add-on language
>pack and fonts to handle the diacritics used in
>transliterating Indic scripts it might be a good idea for as
>many institutions and individuals as possible to  contact

And while they are at it: press on Apple to endorse Unicode too. These
myopic "wars" lead nowhere: only an open wired community with alternatives
will!

BPJ


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*  B.Philip Jonsson <bpj at netg.se>               *
*  Editor, Translator (English <-> Swedish),    *
*  Scholarly font-designer, Web-book designer   *
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