tlug: Introduction; Looking for Help on i18n

[Kai Wetzel <k.wetzel@example.com>]

Hi,

My name is Kai Wetzel.
I've been lurking on this list for a while now.
I am participating in the design of a C++ application
development framework and toolkit for X11, called
Linux Interface Project(LIP) which also intends to
write some desktop applications using said framework.

The LIP is under development, and it can hardly
be used for any application development as for now.
(The project was started in Summer '96 so there _are_
quite some widgets to check our core design :)

However, we are facing two significiant problems,
namely support for internationalization in the toolkit,
as well as an API for 2d graphics.

The LIP team has been aware of the i18n issue for
quite some time now, and we beleive it is one of the
most important areas of our API, especially it would be
harder to add when there are plenty of applications using
the framework.
Unfortunately, we only have one person from Taiwan
who has experience with this subject and he is very
busy, unfortunately.
(And also writing a commercial Input Server which could
cause some problems)

So the reason I'm posting this is that the LIP needs
some people who have experience with programming for
internationalization and I hope that some of you will
be interested in helping out or know other people who
could be interested in this kind of project.

It appears that scripts such as Japanese form one
of the most serious problems in extending an American
application to be usable world-wide, another problem
probably being scripts such as Arabic.

That's why I'm writing to _you_ (Case you didn't guess ;)

(Because some 8bit sripts such as Hebrew have their
own problems, I also intend to ask for interested programmers
on the linux-il mailing list)

There are some things which we have very little knowledge
of and it would be cool if you people could help out, here:

- Programming support for i18n within X11 (Xlib) as well as C++(and C).
  (Since this is what the LIP uses primarily)
- Programming for i18n using Windows NT, Macintosh, and Java (JDK 1.1).
- Issues involved in programming for i18n in general.
- Standards in this area, including UNICODE, etc.

We will need people who would like to discuss the design
of i18n classes and integrating them with our existing classes,
as well as people who would possibly like to help implement
this design when it's done.

The LIP homepage is outdated and will be replaced, soon, but
it's available from http://blank.pages.de/lip/  The current
version of the LIP can be downloaded, so you can see whether
it's worth helping out on from: ftp://blank.pages.de/lip/

Enough of the begging :O)  I'm looking forward to hear from you,

kai


Next TLUG meeting is Saturday Dec. 13, 1997  (possibly Nov. 13?)
---------------------------------------------------------------
a word from the sponsor:
TWICS - Japan's First Public-Access Internet System
www.twics.com  info@example.com  Tel:03-3351-5977  Fax:03-3353-6096