[comp.windows.open-look] I18N?

kk@shasta.tivoli.com (Kerry Kimbrough) (12/14/90)

Apparently, none of the OPEN LOOK toolkits support international text strings.
That is, text that uses character encodings other that ISO Latin-1, a la Motif
compound strings. In fact, none of the toolkits are really clear about what
character set *is* used.

So, USL, Sun...what's going to happen here?

mls@cbnewsm.att.com (mike.siemon) (12/15/90)

In article <ejbyui3@openlook.Unify.Com>, kk@shasta.tivoli.com (Kerry Kimbrough) writes:
> 
> Apparently, none of the OPEN LOOK toolkits support international text strings.
> That is, text that uses character encodings other that ISO Latin-1, a la Motif
> compound strings. In fact, none of the toolkits are really clear about what
> character set *is* used.
> 
> So, USL, Sun...what's going to happen here?

USL is currently implementing toolkit internationalization, with availability
scheduled for 1st half of '91, to the best of my knowledge.  This work is
independent of (but parallel to and in touch with) the X Consortium's I18N
effort for X11R5.  I presume Sun is also working in this direction.  (And
I should note that the last time I looked at Motif documentation, the use of
compound strings was NOT yet supported in the most critical place, the text
widget; undoubtedly OSF is still working in this area as well.)

USL will be updating the workspace manager to perform (and display) locale
setting as workspace properties, and there will be sample XIM implementations
for Japanese input (work being done in cooperation with Fujitsu.)  Toolkit
messages (errors, help messages and what have you) will all operate from the
locale-switched message catalogues.  USL will offer the "internationalized"
version (essentially, current OLIT functionality in a C-locale context) and
I understand that localized versions will be offered by other UI members.
-- 
Michael L. Siemon		In so far as people think they can see the
m.siemon@ATT.COM		"limits of human understanding", they think
...!att!sfsup!mls		of course that they can see beyond these.
standard disclaimer				-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

willie@Eng.Sun.COM (Willie Jow) (12/19/90)

In article <ejbyui3@openlook.Unify.Com>, kk@shasta.tivoli.com (Kerry
Kimbrough) writes:
|> 
|> Apparently, none of the OPEN LOOK toolkits support international text
strings.
|> That is, text that uses character encodings other that ISO Latin-1, a
la Motif
|> compound strings. In fact, none of the toolkits are really clear
about what
|> character set *is* used.
|> 
|> So, USL, Sun...what's going to happen here?

Sun has already announced Japanese OpenWindows a few months ago.  A
limited release will be available shortly and a general release will
follow soon after.  In these releases, EUC (extended Unix code) is used
to handle multibyte characters.  This is consistent with SunOS and
SVR4.


Willie W. Jow
willie@Eng.Sun.Com
Windows and Graphics Software