Re: [9fans] localization

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>]

> > > It's also easier to deal with fixed-width fonts than with many typing fanciness,
> > > as it is easier to take types as fixed drawings than combine them as in arabic.
> >
> > both of these problems are quite easy to solve, since they
> > can be solved once, and are solved problems in plan 9.
>
> But then comes the antialiasing, the subpixel rendering for LCDs, the hinting,
> and all becomes quite complex. I think plan9 works mostly with bitmap fonts,
> isn't it?

plan 9 uses bitmap fonts, but bitmap fonts may be subpixel fonts.  i'm using
one right now.

i think you just made a slipperly slope argument.  just because you solve
one problem, doesn't mean you have to solve every related problem.

> I was not aware that plan9 had the arabic linking solved. Good to know!

sorry.  i didn't read carefully enough.  that's not solved.

however, there are some i18n-related problems that are simply solved.
my system has 32-bit runes and full unicode 6.0 tables for things like
isupperrune, etc. all programs are now happy with runes values up to
0x10FFFF.  grep also accepts -I, which by analogy to -i strips everything
down to a base rune, like dict(1) has traditionally done.  russ has pointed
out that converting to character classes would be faster, and it is, but
only by about 30%.

the first order problem right now is variable-height lines of text so, e.g.,
Ñ doesn't look so bad.

- erik

http://www.quanstro.net/magic/man2html/1/grep
http://www.quanstro.net/magic/man2html/2/isalpharune
http://www.quanstro.net/magic/man2html/2/runeclass