Re: [indic] Lack of Complex script rendering support on Android

On 4 November 2011 22:36, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> All OS distributors should work on creating a base set of fonts needed
> to support all languages and scripts of the world (not necessarily in
> many styles), with a repository of webfonts that an be synced and
> cached automatically. It is no longer acceptable to see square boxes
> for texts written in modern languages and soon people will want to be
> able to read also technical documents with collections of symbols from
> anywhere too, even if they can't easily input them on their device.

Google's web fonts could be something like this - but when I contacted
them freely offering a Tibetan script font that renders well on small
devices they said the service is limited to Latin script fonts for
now.

> Input methods should also be ported to include also user preferences
> on their layouts for the various device form factors they want to use
> (physical keyboards or virtual on-screen touch keyboards) We should
> also be able to extend any smartphone with additional input devices
> with a Bluetooth or WiFi connection, or by the USB plug.

IMO there should be an easy way for users to map or configure the
keyboard (virtual or hardware) - this could be an XML file as in OSX.

> But the main problem of mobile devices is still their battery: you
> can't fit everything in your device, but you also cannot use mobile
> access networks due to the slow speed and cost of data transfers; if
> those prices were lowered, we could host most CPU/GPU and
> memory/storage capabilities remotely, and save lots of battery life on
> the mobile device (no smartphone can work today at least for 24 hours,
> and finding a place to recharge the device is still difficult)

I don't think this is a big issue - Smart phones today contain many
more memory hungry applications than well implemented complex script
rendering - and let the user switch it off if they don;t want it.

Many Symbian feature phones have complex script rendering through Qt -
and they have decent battery life. Data transmission for Unicode
*text* is not heavy load. What is heavy is the way Opera Mini renders
complex script web pages. They render the page on their server and
then send it to your phone as graphics.

- C
Received on Mon Nov 07 2011 - 00:43:04 CST