--- Forwarded Message from [log in to unmask] (David Herren) ---

>From: [log in to unmask] (David Herren)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 07:04:17 -0400
>Subject: Re: #5309 Mac OS X
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>Organization: Center for Educational Technology

[log in to unmask] writes:
>I know it's not out yet, but does anyone know (now that we've discussed this question for OS 9) what kind of language support the new Mac OS X will have?

Outside of Cupertino, no one "knows" what capabilities will be included in the shipping release of MacOS X (Client). I have been working with MacOS X Server since the first developer release and can comment upon that. Many of the features of the server
version will become part of the client version, and the engineers I know who are working on language support in next-derived technologies are among the best and most committed I have ever known.

First of all, MacOS X will be 100% Unicode 2.x compatible. Or should I say, MacOS S Server _IS_ 100% Unicode 2.x compatible already. Building upon that base will make for a relatively easy migration.

In the developer releases of MacOSX Server, there was very good Japanese support. The input methods and fonts were removed from the shipping version, however the fonts still work. The input methods no longer work and will need to be recompiled against the
newer libraries (not a big deal, but not an end user issue).

There is also decent Chinese and Korean support available inexpensively (I got it for free) from a Korean firm, SoftMagic. The Korean support is superior to the Chinese, and they don't play nicely together at the present time, but SoftMagic is aware of
the problem.

The language kits under the "old" macos have never been really Unicode friendly, but _finally_ the engineers in the language and font areas have made some significant progress with there ATSUI initiative (their acronym for Unicode support). By the MacOS X
client timeframe the "old" Apple engineers and the ex-NeXT engineers working on similar technologies will have fully merged their projects.

-- 
David Herren
[log in to unmask]
www.cet.middlebury.edu/herren