To some extent, my problem has been finally solved, though in a bizarre
manner.
On a computer running Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition 4.10.2222 A and
using Internet Explorer Version 5.50.4522.1800 without support for any extra
language added (i.e., with the standard settings that these things ship
with), the following steps were carried out:
1. Control Panel -> Fonts was checked and was found to possess Arial Unicode
MS.
2. The web page:
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/translations/hindi.html was opened
using the browser and the following two errors were observed in the display:
a. Explicit halant shown everywhere, instead of showing the combined form of
the consonants.
b. One vowel sign (maatraa) placed incorrectly (after the consonant, instead
of before).
3. To ensure that the problem was not due to having an older version of
Arial Unicode MS, the font was deleted from the Fonts folder and a fresh
copy was downloaded and installed from
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/aruniupd.aspx
4. The Unicode Hindi page was opened again. No improvement.
5. Following suggestions from this list, a Unicode Hindi-specific font
(Mangal) was obtained (from private sources) and installed in Control Panel
-> Fonts.
6. The Unicode Hindi web page was opened again. This time the title,
paragraph headings, and the centered text on the top of the page was
rendered perfectly using Mangal. All the rest of the Hindi text was rendered
using Arial Unicode MS, with the same errors as before (2a and 2b).
7. Since it was clear now that Arial Unicode MS was causing the problems, it
was deleted from the Fonts folder.
8. The Unicode Hindi web page was now perfectly rendered, completely in
Mangal (for the Hindi part).
This exercise suggests the following:
a. Arial Unicode MS does not support complex scripts unless the OS itself
supports them.
b. Mangal supports the complex script Devanagari regardless of the OS.
c. When both Mangal and Arial Unicode MS are present, IE 5.5 gets confused
and uses a mixture of both of them to display Hindi Unicode.
The version of Uniscribe and the addition/presence of language packs for
scripts like Thai or Arabic does not seem to affect the display of Unicode
Hindi on Win 98 SE.
Is Microsoft doing anything to improve their publically distributed version
of Arial Unicode MS? The UTC should press them to do so. Also, does anyone
know if the Mangal font is available in the public domain? Microsoft should
be asked by the UTC to have Mangal included with all future versions of
Internet Explorer, by default, or something to that effect.
Regards,
Dinesh Agarwal
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Jan 24 2002 - 01:04:32 EST