Re: Persian developers (was Re: Detecting installed fonts in ...

From: Michael \(michka\) Kaplan (michka@trigeminal.com)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 09:33:13 EDT


One thing they do is use the LATEST cp 1256, which includes the Farsi
characters, so the hacks are not needed.... and then they would not have to
move to Unicode, actually. I ran across several localizers who were willing
to produce files in three formats:

1) old cp1256 with the hacks
2) new cp1256
3) Unicode

I actually wrote a parser for one of them at the time (they were actually
retyping in each case, I switched them into always using Unicode and
converting after if they needed to!).

michka

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Hallissy" <bob_hallissy@sil.org>
To: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 2:38 AM
Subject: Persian developers (was Re: Detecting installed fonts in ...

> Subject:
> Persian developers (was Re: Detecting installed fonts in a
> browser window)
> ---------------------------------
>
>
>
> roozbeh@sina.sharif said:
>
>
> >That has created a major problem for Persian developers trying
> to maintain a web page. They should check the page for any case
> of medial form of ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH, and replace it with
> ARABIC LETTER YEH, because they look like each other in the
> medial form. But that also creates a problem when the users
> uses a local search on the document.
>
> This raises a question that I've been wondering about:
>
> It has been my impression that many Persion applications use
> the Arabic YEH code point (Windows character 237, U+064A) for
> the Farsi Yeh, and then depend on the font to have been
> modified to show the final and isolate without dots. This, of
> course, would not be considered "correct Unicode", but it was a
> way to adapt Arabic software to Farsi needs. Similar hacks, if
> I may call them that, are typically made with a couple of other
> characters, namely Teh Marbuta (Windows 201, U+0629) and Kaf
> (223, U+0643), to get the correct Farsi shapes.
>
> With wider Unicode coverage from Microsoft and other vendors
> (albeit with occasional bugs as you have pointed out), these
> hacks are no longer necessary. But there is surely a large body
> of Farsi text already encoded using the hacks. What is the
> general mood of Persian software industry towards this problem:
> Are they moving rapidly to Unicode or are they staying with the
> old? Is a standard mechanism (e.g., import/export filters)
> being developed for migrating and exchanging the data?
>
> I'd appreciate any insight you or others on this list have.
>
> Bob Hallissy
>
>



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