--- Leonard Rosenthol <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 3:17 AM +0100 4/22/02, Andrew Dunbar wrote: > >Pango is cross-platform > > Well, for those platforms for which the entirety of > glib2 has > been ported - which as far as I know is....Linux, > Linux and Linux.
I was lead to believe it was a lot more portable than that but maybe I'm wrong ): > >and is an abstraction that will use > >Uniscribe on Windows and ATSUI on Mac as well as > >FreeType on *nix. > > Not as I understand it. It will simply use FT2 - > it does NOT > try to sit on top of UniScribe or ATSUI...nor why > should it since > most of that logic is higher up in Pango. Really? I think this is the comment from Havoc Pennington which gave me the impression I have: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-office-list/2000-November/msg00115.html > >Pango provides similar functionality to MS's > Uniscribe. FreeType > >only provides the functionality that you get from > OpenType/TrueType > >on > >Windows/Mac. > > Correct. > > > >You won't get proper > >rendering of Thai or Indian languages with FreeType > >alone. > > True, you'd need to add the appropriate glyph > shapers, > contextual handlers, etc. Tomas has already done a > nice job of that > with Hebrew and Arabic, and if/when we get users who > are itching for > Thai and Indian, we can add shapers for those too. Hebrew is very easy. It only has 4 final forms. I'm not sure if we support Hebrew vowel points because that is harder. Arabic is a lot more comples but nowhere near as complex as Indian scripts and Thai is probably somewhere in between. I've been trying to get Thai and Indian developers interested for ages but the always start off enthusiastic then get disheartened and leave ): > >Do a Google search > >for Uniscribe or ATSUI to see what they provide > that > >we will need sooner or later. > > I am quite familiar with both, thanks ;). I know a > number of > folks on both development/engineering teams... Wow cool. Too bad they're not hacking AbiWord! (: > >I think the major argument we had against Pango was > >that it requires glib > > Right! > > > >The Gnome guys don't > >see this as a problem since glib is cross-platform. > > > > See comment about glib and XP ;). At Guadec there was a guy (forget his name) from Compaq/HP/whoever they are now who did a presentation on "Drainng the Swamp" - basically getting rid of redundant development to make Linux more viable. One of his points was breaking up big libraries into smaller pieces that provided only the necessary bits to do a certain task. The Gnome guys were very well represented at this presentation and very interested. If Glib2 is a burden for us but does contain stuff that is essential for Pango, I am in favour of hassling them to get it split out - or splitting it out ourselves - I even have a feeling that somebody else has already done this... It's gotta be easier than reinventing the Pango wheel doesn't it? By the way, I emailed Owen Taylor a bit earlier and invited him to join this discussion. Andrew Dunbar. > LDR > -- > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Leonard Rosenthol > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > <http://www.lazerware.com> ===== http://linguaphile.sourceforge.net http://www.abisource.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com
