Re: Linux console internationalization

[Tomohiro KUBOTA <debian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

From: Innocenti Maresin <av95@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Linux console internationalization
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2003 03:22:27 +0400

> Tomohiro KUBOTA wrote:
> 
> > Interesting, but any plan to support more than 512 characters?
> 
> Not within VGA text modes.
> 2^9 is a hardware restriction based on text framebuffer's data semantic.

I see.  It is since MS/PC-DOS version 6.x (so-called "DOS/V") that
IBM-compatible PC began to be able to display Japanese characters on
text screen.  (Before then Japanese local PC was used which has
hardware Japanese support.)

I imagine the MS/PC-DOS used VGA graphic mode.  (I heard that "V"
in the name "DOS/V" came from "VGA".)

> And I think that 9x16 (this is the largest glyph size usable in VGA text)
> is apparently much less than is needed to read Japan glyphs without risk of eyes.
> Even for 12-year-old Japanese person ;-)

Right.  On tty, Japanese character are displayed using two columns.
For example, when ASCII characters are 8x16, Japanese characters are
16x16.

> So, VGA text seems not to be an acceptable solution for East Asia.

Right.

---
Tomohiro KUBOTA <kubota@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.debian.or.jp/~kubota/


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