Re: Linux console internationalization

[Jungshik Shin <jshin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, Edward H. Trager wrote:

> On Wednesday 2003.08.06 08:29:37 -0400, Chris Heath wrote:

> I (and many others ...) would argue that everyone needs to move to Unicode.

  So do I :-)

> it's going to support Unicode very well, and it is perhaps no longer going to
> support the 3-5 mutually incompatible legacy encodings of your language
> that you previously

  As Beni wrote, luit will help here.

> > * user-space pluggability for extra-heavyweight stuff like Japanese
> >    input methods or fonts

> I wonder if the object oriented design of SCIM (Simple Common Input Method:
> http://ns.turbolinux.com.cn/~suzhe/scim/index.html) could support CJK and
> other IMs on the console?

  Or, IIIMF?

> > * bidi text (Arabic)
> > * variable width fonts (CJK),

 Perhaps, CJK 'bi-width' (or dual-width) fonts would be a better name.
Markus' simple wc(s)width(_cjk) can come handy for this. Vim and
Xterm already use them to support optional CJK width convention.

> > * variable-width encodings (Unicode combining chars),
>
> Yes, it would be nice if console worked as well as (or better than)

  There are a couple of  frame-buffer based implementations (user-space)
around to support Indic scripts as well as to Japanese, Korean and
perhaps Chinese (with built-in or external input methods)

> > How important is it to have an in-kernel console?

  Probably, offering a rather simple and robust in-kernel console along
with a full-featured i18nized heavy-weight  user-space console is the
way to go.

  Jungshik
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