RE: hanzi vs kanji

["Maiorana, Jason" <jmaiorana@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> Thats really the question: Is the difference between
>> Hanzi and Kanji more one of typeface or of script.
>> I would argue that it is a real script difference,

>   I strongly disagree with you on this point.
>Most people on the Unicode list would agree with
>me. If they're different scripts, CJK Unification
>should be overthrown right away.

That is an interesting opinion, but it is congruent
with the unicode consortiums decisions. The dissent
I have heard was someone saying that Japanese Kanji
are a different script than hanzi etc, but I suppose
that is a minority opinion. (I will concede for now :)



Its seems possible to create a font which supports all
the language-typeface variants for a single style-typeface
using opentype layout tables.

There are also tools, such as OTComp at
http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~slam/fonts/
which will take a text "feature file", and turn it
into an opentype layout table...

It seems to me, given a version of unicode, it should be
possible to create a template feature file, which describes,
for example, all the substitutions needed for CJK across
the different "language-typefaces". It could then be
specialized for a particular font (substituting in the
glyph indicies specific to the font)



Also, does anyone know of an renderer on linux that
can use the opentype layout tables? I saw some 
messages from 2000 indicating that freetype2 layout api
would be usable by pango, but the freetype2 otlayout
interface doesnt even seem to be ready yet...


What I am hoping to see is perhaps a single application
showing a pair of text strings in the same exact font,
but showing the standard Chinese typeface variant in one
and the standard Japanese variant in the other....
(using a single font file)


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