Re: alias in fontconfig (Re: supporting XIM)

[Edward Cherlin <cherlin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 31 March 2003 04:31 pm, Jungshik Shin wrote:
>Tomohiro KUBOTA wrote:
> >I want such "alias" to be automated.  If I have one Korean
> > font installed, it is obvious that renderer must use the
> > font for all Korean texts. It is not a good idea that the
> > renderer fail to display Korean when the user doesn't
> > configure the "alias".
>
>     fontconfig always returns a font if there's a font on the
> system with the character requested.
> So, it's possible now.

Doing it one character at a time is guaranteed to give hideous 
results. I have had the unfortunate experience of viewing a 
display in mixed CJK fonts, and I have had many similar 
unfortunate experiences of viewing APL code rendered in random 
math fonts. It is extremely important to a lot of people that 
they be able to specify a font *per language*, without regard to 
the definition of Unicode blocks or old-time code pages or 
ISO-8859-* or any other 8-bit font hack. But we want to do it 
once, and then have it work with every program through unlimited 
system upgrades, and be able to take the config file to any 
other computer to install in our private user areas.

There is, of course, the question of defining the character 
repertoire and rendering rules for a language (which may differ 
substantially from the rules for another language written in the 
same script). To get started, it will suffice if I can say that 
the set of characters in one font that I designate defines the 
repertoire for my use of the language. When we have adequate 
support for more intelligent fonts, we can build in some of the 
rendering rules, also, but in the end language-specific document 
creation will be the job of applications well above the text 
editor level. At some point, explicit repertoire lists will be 
needed, I suppose. Or something else we haven't thought of yet.
-- 
Edward Cherlin
Generalist & activist--Linux, languages, literacy and more
"A knot! Oh, do let me help to undo it!"
--Alice in Wonderland

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