Safeguarding the past, present and future of RISC OS for everyone

Unicode support (changes)

Showing changes from revision #9 to #10: Added | ~~Removed~~ | ~~Chan~~ged

RISC OS 5 has a Unicode Font Manager. Currently, though, few applications make use of it, partly due to the fact that the Wimp only partially supports it, and also because there’s no agreed way for third-party software to ensure that user-facing text is always readable in both UTF-8 and old-style system alphabets.

The following to-do list is an attempt to clarify what needs to be done in order to make UTF-8 system alphabets work properly, and also to create an environment in which third-party application authors can update their programs in a backwards-compatible way.

Task	Progress
1. ~~Chars capable of viewing/inserting UTF-8 characters~~	Complete
2. Edit capable of viewing/editing UTF-8 text
3. ~~Draw text area import and backspace in text entry mode~~	Complete
4. Paint text tool uses System Font only
5. TextArea Toolbox gadget caret & backspace
6. Agree an update to the Territories system (see discussion)
7. OS_SpriteOp 51 and OS_Word 10 could accept UTF-8
8. Postscript output from printed Unicode
9. Update filing systems to work correctly in UTF-8
10. Add option to set the Alphabet from Configure plug-in
11. Publish technical notes for third-party developers
12. Add more characters to ROM fonts
13. Review early adopting components to check they follow RFC3629 (max encoding 21 bits)