RE: MS Windows and Unicode 4.0 ?

From: Peter Constable (petercon@microsoft.com)
Date: Tue Dec 02 2003 - 01:08:00 EST

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    From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org on behalf of Patrick Andries

    >I'm interested in knowing whether the following features would soon be found
    >in Windows : fonts for scripts covered by Unicode 4.0,
     
    This is certainly growing, and the next version of Windows ("Longhorn") will have significant improvement in this regard over WinXP. It's not likely that that will include all of Unicode 4.0, though (e.g. the audience for something like Byzantine music symbols is probably very small and probably has their own source of fonts, so there is likely little benefit to users by MS including such fonts in Windows).
     
    It is possible that additional fonts may be provided in out-of-band releases during the interim, but there are no guarantees in this respect. Additional fonts may also be provided with other products, such as Office.
     
     
    > corresponding
    >rendering engine to display all Unicode 4.0 scripts - I suspect this should
    be ok(*)-
     
    I believe all will be covered in Longhorn. Note that Office 2003 has a more recent version of Uniscribe than the version that ships with WinXP, but the Office copy of Uniscribe is separate from the Windows copy and is used only by Office, so functionality in Notepad might not be the same as that in Word. Note also that the comment above on out-of-band release applies equally here.
     
     
    >and updated character table insertion features in Office and OS
    >to key in any character in Unicode 4.0.
     
    If you're referring to the Character Map program, all I can tell you is that you shouldn't expect to see any change before Longhorn (and I cannot say whether it will change in Longhorn). Note that you can use MSKLC to create a custom input method that can enter any Unicode 4.0 (or 4.1 or...) character.
     
    Again, someone else will have to comment on Insert|Symbol in Office.
     
     
    >(*) Well, does the latest or next version of the Office/OS tools support
    >(render) the OpenType ligature features for latin scripts
     
    The version of Uniscribe that ships with Office 2003 does this.
     
     
     
    Peter Constable
     

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