Re: Linux Console in UTF-8 - current state

[kaih@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kai Henningsen)]

tkubota@xxxxxxxxxxx (Tomohiro KUBOTA)  wrote on 29.09.02 in <200209290818.g8T8IKx18091@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> At 29 Sep 2002 08:51:55 +0200,
> Eric Streit wrote:
>
> > > It is probably safe to assume that anybody who wants to avoid
> > > framebuffers will not need UTF-8 support, though, so a config option for
> > > a stripped down console that way might be useful.
> > >
> >
> >
> > if we implement a complete graphical environment in the framebuffer...
> > it's a way to reinvent X11 ;)

Who wants a "complete graphical environment"?

We're just talking about text here.

> For example, 18x18ja.bdf in XFree86's CVS today is just about 4MB and
> about 600kB when compressed.  When we know that this font (or similar
> one, which will be in similar size) is mandatory for CJK people, I
> imagine nobody would think this size is too large to be included in
> Linux source code.

What for?

What I'd really like to have is to have the *option* (which would  
presumably be used in the boot scripts by a desktop machine) to download a  
full Unicode font into the kernel.

I can afford 4 or 8 MB unswappable memory in a machine with 1 GB RAM. Hey,  
I could afford 50.

And if someone doesn't need this, such as on a typical server, or in  
embedded space, or whatever, they'd just not do that.

No need to have the font (or the download utility) in the Kernel  
*sources*, or even to link it in.

That probably should imply that the internally kept text screen should  
have 21 bits for the character value. Given that today we have (I believe)  
8 bit for character attributes (colour, blink), if we put both in one 32  
bit word (though that is certainly not critical), we'd still have 3 bits  
left - we could even implement a larger attribute space! (Though maybe  
some additional trickery for composing characters should be done.)

Probably need some corresponding changes for the /dev/v* devices. But  
leave that until after the tet buffer design is clear.

MfG Kai
--
Linux-UTF8:   i18n of Linux on all levels
Archive:      http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-utf8/