Re: [tlug] i-mode i18n

[Stephen Lee <sl@example.com>]

Jim Breen <jwb@example.com> wrote:
> >> From: Ulrich Plate <plate@example.com>
> 
> >> Or is it still possible to
> >> match Chinese and Japanese rendering styles in a Unicoded document
> >> within a single font, provided the text declares the language tag
> >> correctly? 
> 
> Well, not with a single font.

It could be desirable to use the same font and have a consistent look in
a document that e.g. mixes Chinese and Japanese.

Technology-wise, a single font can support variant glyphs of a single
character, although I have yet to see a good implementation.  This is
probably because I don't buy fonts, but considering how even a large
company like MS have problems with having a consistent look between
JIS-0208 and JIS-0212 characters, it will take a lot of effort to
achieve a single CJK font.

Here's proof that a font can contain variants, from someone you know
well :-)

http://www.unicode.org/iuc/iuc13/a10/slides.pdf

> >>And how would you do this without a markup language like XML
> >> or HTML?
> 
> I think it should be a markup issue.

Unicode 3.1 have code points for language tags, but their use is
strongly discouraged:

http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr27/#tag

"The characters in this block provide a mechanism for language tagging
in Unicode plain text. However, the use of these characters is strongly
discouraged. The characters in this block are reserved for use with
special protocols. They are not to be used in the absence of such
protocols, or with any protocols that provide alternate means for
language tagging, such as HTML or XML. The requirement for language
information embedded in plain text data is often overstated. See Section
5.11, Language Information in Plain Text in The Unicode Standard,
Version 3.0...."

Stephen