[liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: [liblouis] r715 committed - the last batch of files converted to utf-8.
- From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 15:23:25 -0500
Hi John,
As I have explained, tables are source files and should be
human-readable in the same way as program source code. The problems with
screenreaders are another reason for not using UTF-8 in opcode
arguments.
John B.
On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 09:22:38AM -0700, John Gardner wrote:
> John, every text editor that I use is fully capable of using UTF8. Even
> Windows Notepad, the most backward one of all, can use UTF8. And as Masar
> points out, anybody writing in languages using extended character sets
> mostly uses UTF8 nowadays anyhow. Windows of course uses UTF16 as its
> default set, but it converts to/from UTF8 okay, with screen readers being
> the main victim somehow.
>
> I had understood that you would need to make big changes to liblouis to use
> UTF8. If that is not the case, then I guess I am now wondering why not.
> Seems to me that we could continue to use the /x notation for backward
> compatibility.
>
> What is the down side?
>
> John G
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:liblouis-liblouisxml-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John J.
> Boyer
> Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2012 9:17 AM
> To: liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: [liblouis] r715 committed - the last
> batch of files converted to utf-8.
>
> I feel that it is important that the tables should be human-readable and
> editable with simple text editors. This is not the case if either UTF-8
> or Latin-1 is used. That is why I think we should use the \xhhhh
> notation for all characters above 127. I don't care that it doesn['t
> look pretty. It makes things easier for people who have to maintain
> tables after the original author is finished with them. Moreover, why
> should European languages be favored in terms of ease of entering
> characters? Non-Eupopean languages must use the \xhhhh notation anyway.
> Finally, I don't think it is a good idea to suddenly change a way of
> writing tables that has been used from the beginning.
>
> John
>
> On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 04:21:01PM +0100, Mesar Hameed wrote:
> > Hi John,
> >
> > On Tue 03/07/12,10:05, John J. Boyer wrote:
> > > If UTF8 is allowed in the character argument of opcodes, no characters
> > > above 127 can be used. This would invalidate any tables using Latin-1.
> >
> > Yes, they are already been converted to utf8, i.e. no byte uses values
> above 127 as per the unicode standard.
> > If they need to represent aumlouts greek symbols etc, they are correctly
> encoded using utf8.
> >
> > > People would not be able to simply type letters on their keyboards.
> >
> > Sorry i think you are mixing computer representation, with human readable
> representation.
> > The point of utf8 is:
> > * for everyone to be able to use their keyboards, and directly see on the
> screen what characters they have typed.
> > * their text independant of location of the reader, is exactly what the
> author wrote.
> >
> > I can quite happely write swedish text and send it to you, and you can
> receive it perfectly fine, as long as the file is utf8 encoded.
> > If i send it as latin1, I am presuming that you will open it in latin1,
> and if you dont then you will not be able to read the content correctly.
> >
> > To reiterate, At this moment in time, no tables are using values above
> 127, but they are displaying correctly for everyone, because they use utf8.
> > so we wish opcodes to accept utf8 operands.
> > Of course, when it comes to sending for printing, these values are
> correctly mapped using the dis files to fall in within the characters that
> > the hardware accepts.
> >
> > Mesar
> > For a description of the software, to download it and links to
> > project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
>
> --
> John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
> Abilitiessoft, Inc.
> http://www.abilitiessoft.com
> Madison, Wisconsin USA
> Developing software for people with disabilities
>
> For a description of the software, to download it and links to
> project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
>
> For a description of the software, to download it and links to
> project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
--
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities
For a description of the software, to download it and links to
project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
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