So, you seem to be suggesting that all applications, and the system libraries which they generally use for character handling, should be rewritten so that data is transformed into and stored in a particular well-defined order. Presumably that order would be one of the Unicode normalisation forms; most likely NFC as that matches the XML recommendation. Conceivably it could be a different privately defined form, e.g. based on a different set of combining classes (cf. the permuted combining class weights of TUS Table 5-6) chosen to get round some of the well known problems with the standardised combining classes. Fonts would be required to display correctly only this one clearly defined order.-----Original Message-----On
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Peter Kirk
Thank you. This is the clarification I was looking for, and confirmsmy
own suspicions. But are there any other views on this? I have heardthis
them from implementers of rendering systems. But I have wondered if
is because of their reluctance to do the extra work required toconform
to this requirement.
This isn't something that can be fixed in rendering systems. It wouldn't be hard to do; it's just too much of a performance issue. It has to be addressed by the software calling the rendering system.
Peter
Peter Constable Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies Microsoft Windows Division
It seems to me that this is a viable alternative approach to the canonical equivalence issue, either globally, or within a particular company's system architecture provided that there is proper support within the system libraries and from the system fonts. It might lead to increased overall efficiency, although with some danger of chaos in the interim period. It is not the approach which Unicode has recommended in its implementation guidelines, although I suppose that recommendation could be changed. I wonder if it is the approach which has been agreed and will be implemented across the board by any one company. It is certainly not viable for a rendering group to unilaterally pass to an applications group, or to a system libraries group, responsibility for such an important matter ("goes to the core of Unicode") which the Unicode standard currently clearly states to be a rendering issue.
-- Peter Kirk [EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) http://www.qaya.org/
