Re: 8-Bit font Doesn't Work across platforms!!

[Leong Kok Yong <kokyong@irdu.nus.sg>]

I'm sorry to say that this is totally wrong!

We've successfully make fonts for Windows, Mac and UNIX all based on the
same code - TamilNet. Yes, it's another one of those proprietary Tamil
codes. But just to prove the point - there's nothing wrong with 8-bit
codes when use across platform.
http://www.irdu.nus.sg/tamilweb/
I'm sure Muthu's Anjal code can have support for Mac and UNIX as well.

You've stated all the problems when it comes to using an 8bit code across 
various platform, but there're solutions to them.

On Mac you need to do MacRoman encoding. MacRoman encoding is a little
different, but with Macromedia Fontographer, a Windows TTF font can be
converted to Mac TTF font in one operation!  So can a UNIX font be
similarly derived, though you may need to fill in some X related info
after the conversion.

In short, the apparent incompatibilites are trivial...once you know the
way.


On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, George Hart wrote:

> I have a Mac, and I have implemented Inaimathi on it, so that I can read
> mail composed with Muthu's system on Eudora.  Surprise -- IT DOESN'T WORK!
> 
> After being totally confused for a few days, I have figured out the
> following (using Virtual PC on the Mac so that I can send mail to and from
> both Windows and Mac environments).
> 
> All of the following applies to anjal (and/or Inaimathi, which has the same
> coding) -- and only the Tamil part of the fonts (the upper 128):
> 
> 1. Mac to Mac is OK.
> 2. PC to PC is OK.
> 3. Mac to PC or PC to Mac produces garbage (apparently), BUT
> 4. If you take the garbage produced by 3 and send it back, that is, if you
> send PC to Mac and send what you got back to PC, it's OK again.  What this
> means is the following.
> 
> For characters with the 8th bit set (i.e. the top 128, the Tamil characters
> in Muthu's font), Eudora remaps the ASCII positions, probably when it sends
> to the mail vehicle (Unix account or whatever).  Subsequently, it remaps
> them back to its own OS when it receives them back.  Let's take,
> hypothetically, A0 on a Windows system.  It may be remapped to, say, A5
> when it's sent.  Then, if you have a Windows system, A5 is remapped to A0
> when Eudora receives the message and it's OK.  BUT the Mac may remap A5 to
> A6, producing apparent garbage.
> 
> If you send the Mac version (now A6) back to a Windows machine, first it's
> mapped to A5 and sent out to Unix, then the Windows machine maps it to A0
> when it receives it, and It's OK again.
> 
> What this means is that 8 BIT CHARACTERS ARE A CAN OF WORMS.  I had exactly
> this same problem trying to use Lasso (a filemaker plugin) with Muthu's
> characters -- it remapped everything.  Fortunately, I then found a program
> that wouldn't remap them.  But the fact is, the majority of programs out
> there remap all (or most of) the characters in the top 128 of the ASCII set.
> 
> This problem does not simply appear when we cross platforms.  The Lasso
> problem meant I couldn't do what I wanted to even only on a Mac.
> 
> We will have MANY fewer problems if we implement a 7-bit Tamil font.
> Perhaps we won't have room for quite all the bells and whistles (e.g. we
> may have to use kerning for the dot), but the result will be a lot easier
> to use and a lot more productive than an 8-bit font.  Please, let's give
> this very serious consideration -- it's a critically important issue
> (unlike most of the things we have spent our time on).  George Hart
> 
> 
>