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Re: Big5-HKSCS <-> Unicode gconv module



On 7 Jan 2000, ÃiÃiÂy¤H wrote:

> ¡i ¦b thomas@atlas.datexx.com (Thomas Chan) ªº¤j§@¤¤´£¨ì: ¡j
> : On 7 Jan 2000, ÃiÃiÂy¤H wrote:
> : > Precompiled binary:
> : >         http://spacehunt.e-fever.dhs.org/BIG5.so
> : How does this map?  1) Unicode 3.0 where possible, then PUA; 2) Unicode
> : 2.0 where possible, then PUA; or 3) always PUA?
> 
> err ..
> ISO-10646 v1 where possible, then PUA.
> coz ISO-10646 v2 (Unicode 3.0?) has not been released yet.

Yes, ISO 10646-2 is Unicode 3.0.  On the Unicode site, 
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/versions/Unicode3.0.html
is dated Sep 14, 1999, and the hardcopy book is due at the end of Feb
2000.  The Digital 21 mapping tables themselves have been around
since Oct 1999.

Unless people already have GCCS data converted to Unicode 2.0 + PUA,
I don't see the harm in starting right off with HKSCS<->Unicode 3.0 + PUA,
and saving the hassle of converting some PUA codepoints to Unicode 3.0's
CJK Extension A in the near future.  (Plus claim that Linux is among the
first to support Unicode 3.0. :) )  The only problem I see, which
shouldn't still exist, is that CJK Extension A occupies the codepoints
formerly occupied by hangul in Unicode 1.x before they were moved
elsewhere for Unicode 2.0 (and those codepoints were unused during Unicode
2.0)--there might still be "non-compliant" fonts (such as the original
versions of the Bitstream Cyberbit font) and mapping tables out there.
(But that's not really our problem, is it?  It's the only time that a
drastic move like that has ever happened, and they don't want to do it
again.)

 
> : Doesn't the Digital 21 page at http://www.digital21.gov.hk/eng/hkscs/
> : provide a .tte Truetype font for HKSCS?  Dynalab HK and 5C also have one
> : at http://www.dynalab.com.hk/new/HKSCSDL.htm and www.5c.org .  (I haven't
> : looked at these, but I recall the GCCS one at www.info.gov.hk/gccs was
> : rather ugly.)
> 
> Well, if we really wanted to we can use freetype to help generate some
> bitmap fonts .. I' haven't really looked into it much yet.

Vector fonts don't really look nice when rasterized at small sizes,
though. :/  I think some Truetype fonts have embedded bitmaps; it'd be
good to use those if they exist.


> : Do you have input methods?  www.info.gov.hk/gccs had Cangjie for GCCS
> : (I've converted this once too...) and I think Digital 21 had Cangjie for
> : HKSCS...  But I personally don't know how to use Cangjie. :/
> 
> Q9 (http://www.qcode.com) supports HKSCS already, but it's currently 
> disabled for the Linux version. However I've been using the HKSCS-enabled
> version at office for a few days already without any problems.
> But I'm not sure whether we will actually release the HKSCS-enabled 
> version. (hey, spacehunt, stop advertising! :p)

It looks interesting--I think I could learn to use this system.


Thomas Chan
tc31@cornell.edu



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