[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: hindi gnome & indix project(was Re:hindi)
From:       Keyur Shroff <keyur_shroff () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2002-07-04 6:49:39
[Download RAW message or body]

Hello World!

I was browsing through the list and suddenly found an interesting
discussion going on for Indian languages. So now I have joined this list. I
am a member of the team who has worked for IndiX project mentioned below.
We are willing to contribute towards localization of Qt for Indian language
support. We have know-how available for X Window architecture, OpenType
font, Unicode/UTF-8, and Indic script shaping.

I would also like to take this opportunity to explain our case.

On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 13:33:14 +0200 Lars Knoll <lars@trolltech.com> wrote:

> > The guys at Indix Project(http://rohini.ncst.ernet.in/indix/) are
> > trying to provide support for indic languages right at the
> > X-server level, by modifying the X-server itself. Their
> > server(indix) even has support for open-type
> > fonts(http://rohini.ncst.ernet.in/indix/technical_details.html).
> > But IMHO, it does seem too complicated & whether such a thing is
> > really feasible in terms of stability, et al needs to be pondered.
> > -Pramod.

> Doing it at the XServer level seems wrong to me. Some people tried
> this for hebrew/arabic, but the result can be at best halfways
> usable for displaying. You will get lots of problems with
> applications that query font metrics on a per character basis and
> assume these are correct. There is no way at all you could get an
> editor working this way. 
> > So IMO the work has to be done on the toolkit level that offers
> displaying and editing widgets. In our case this is Qt, and I am
> very much willing to devote time to implement this, once we get the
> basics in place. This means I would need some way to get access to
> the open type tables from freetype or (best) Xft. Once we have that,
> we are a big step further, as Qt already offers a lot of the
> infrastructure needed.
> > Cheers,
> > Lars

The approach we took in localization is somewhat mixed approach - Server
side modification and client side changes.

When we started work on this project, the latest version of XFree86 was
3.3.6. No TrueType support was actually there in X. I recall that a font
server namely xfs-tt was made available during that time period. This
xfs-tt was capable of handling TrueType font. Then someone released a patch
for adding TrueType support on X server side itself by writing a FreeType
wrapper in font module of X Window System. At that time the approach was
towards X server side font handling. Starting from XFree86-4.x series, X
comes with FreeType wrapper to handle TrueType font on the server side.
Then people at XFree86 development team suddenly realized the drawback of X
server side support and so now the current approach is towards client-side
modification.

In IndiX system, we have adopted mixed approach so that minimum
modification is required in client libraries/applications. We handle
OpenType font on the server side. It means that this modified X Window
system is capable of handling substitution and positioning complexities of
glyphs on the server side itself. On the client side we modified data entry
widgets of gtk+ library so that the library sends request to the X server
on "per syllable" basis and not on "per character" basis. This approach
requires minimal changes in client library like gtk+ and Qt because all
complexities of OpenType font are being taken care by modified X server
itself. This also requires sending more requests to X server and not using
client side function like XTextWidth. This will slow down the X server and
definately put more overhead on the server side but the approach has paid
some dividend also. For example, rendering Indic script is very complex but
the client library need not be aware of these complexities. Even I can see
Indian langauge text properly without any problem in applications like
konqueror and Netscape using this modified X server. Only the input method
has to be introduced/changed in the client library.

We are very much willing to provide all kind of support as required by the
localization team for Qt. We can provide all technical know-how for Indian
languages and also contribute to the code development. Please guide us
about how to start our work on localization of Qt for Indian language
support and who are the lead developers on the list for this kind of work.

Thanks and regards,
Keyur


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free
http://sbc.yahoo.com
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]