[Kannada] Re: Doubts in Unicode on Win 95/98/Me

[arasan at bgl.vsnl.net.in]

Dear Thejesh,

Thejesh : Hi All,
I have some questions related to Unicode on Windows98.
 
Thejesh : (1)What do you mean when you state ‘Win98 does not support Unicode completely’. Is it like we can edit Unicode files on Win98 or some thing like that?

Pavanaja : There is full-fledged OS level support for Unicode on Win 98, especially for Indian Languages (IL). You can not have filenames in IL as in WinXP. The complex script support, ie., the rendering mechanism for opentype fonts is not existing in Win 98. Hence you can not edit IL in Unicode on most applications like Notepad, WordPad, Word, etc.

Arasan : It is true that MS Windows 98 does not support Unicode completely. To match the usage of IL implementation using hacked fonts, MS Windows 98 has to support input of Unicode characters and render the Unicode character sequences to a acceptable writing system. MS Windows 98 doesn’t support the input of Unicode as it handles 8 messages. As far as rendering of Unicode character sequence is concerned it fully supports Unicode.

Using (rendering) Unicode on MS platforms including MS Windows 98 depends on the edit controls which is used in the application.  Therefore enabling Unicode enabled applications like MS Office XP on MS Windows XP is comparatively easier than enabling Unicode unaware applications. We at APPLESOFT have enabled MS Office 2000 and XP to handle ISCII and Unicode. Our solution supports input and redering of Unicode in MS Office 2000 and XP on MS Windows 98. MS IE 6.0 is more generic example which supports Unicode on MS Windows 98.

Thejesh : (2)I want to know what is possible and what is not possible on Win 98 regarding Unicode?

Pavanaja : You can write an Unicode editor for IL yourself by employing Uniscribe APIs for rendering. This tough, but not impossible. If there is a rendering mechanism (GTK/Pango ?) then you should be able to handle Unicode IL on Windows 98.

On VB6, using Forms2 controls, you can display IL Unicode text. This applies to Textbox as well. But online editoing is not perfect. I could type in one Textbox and display the rendered text in another textbox. I can share the code with you, if you want.

You can put up a IL web-site in Unicode employing dynamic fonts (EOT) and then display wthem properly on Windows 98 and IE6. You need to install IE6 with Arabic support for the matching Uniscribe to be installed.

You can write an application (VB or VC) embedding the web browser control and then display a web-site which is in IL Unicode. Hence if you want to display a IL Unicode file in Win 98, you can make it a HTML file (UTF-8) and then use this application.

Arasan : MS Windows 98 don’t support direct Unicode input. Uniscribe is a layer between MS Windows 98 and the applications running on it. Therefore, if the application knows on how to handle Unicode, then it can make use of either Uniscribe or ICU to render Unicode character sequences.

Thejesh : (3)I read about MSLU (The Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/ME systems) 
whose stated purpose is [To provide] a complete set of Unicode functions on Microsoft 
Windows(r) 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me). 
With this, Unicode applications can run on Microsoft Windows NT(r), 
Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 95/98/Me. Does this change the scene in anyway?

(4)If the MSLU is not useful for using Unicode on Win98. Then what are its short comings. 
And what needs to be done?

Pavanaja : I have not done much with MSLU. But as per the information I have gathered, it is not much useful for IL and Arabic as these use complex scripts.

Arasan : MSLU is meant for writing Unicode enabled applications. It is not useful in enabling the existing applications like MS Office.

Thejesh : (5)[For Java Experts]As far as I know all strings in Java are stored as Unicode. And Java uses Unicode internally. Is it like if I write something in XP doesn’t work on Win98? 

Pavanaja : What does Java use for rendering the OTF? Is it using Uniscribe (on Windows) or its own rendering? Has ICU got some rendering engine also? I would request Java experts to pitch in here.

Thejesh :  If somebody can write to me in detail it will be of great help to me.

Arasan : If you write any application with Unicode support for MS Windows XP it can handle Unicode and can render Unicode character sequences as far as you have installed MS IE 6.0 on your system. Please note that, you must ensure appropriate versions of the edit controls used in your application.


N. Anbarasan