Re: Tamil support: Ubuntu Drapper Beta, Gnome

[Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net>]

O/H Shakthi Kannan ÎÎÏÎÏÎ:
> Hi Simos and others,
>
> On 5/3/06, Simos Xenitellis <simos74 gmx net> wrote:
> > Rendering should work ok. If not, it's an issue of what default font
> > Ubuntu uses for Tamil. Use Accessories/Character Map, find Tamil group
> > and right-click on letters. This will show which font is used for Tamil.
>
> Yes, you are right. I changed it to "Lohit Tamil" and it displayed it 
> correctly.
>
> http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/tamil/corrected-1.jpg
For applications to be able to select the correct font, the system 
should show a preference to the most suitable one for Tamil.
This is done in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf
Notice the section <prefer></prefer> which is a preference list for fonts.
When the system wants to show Tamil, it will traverse the list until it 
finds Tamil glyphs.
Therefore, the order is important to get the correct Tamil font selected.
In FreeDesktop CVS, the file is
http://webcvs.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/fonts.conf.in?view=markup
To change the list (add a Tamil font), you need to  send a bug report 
similar to
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4639
You get more chances to get changes applied quickly by visiting
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/fontconfig
and joining the list. Post an e-mail about your change and URL to bug 
report
and you should have the changes applied in a jiffy.

For Latin/Greek/Cyrillic, there are Sans/Serif/Monospace faces of fonts. 
For Indic languages
I think there is no such differentiation. When changing fonts.conf, put 
the appropriate fonts in all three categories.
When you see "sans", "serif" and "monospace" in GNOME, these are not 
specific fonts; these are sort of virtual fonts
and the characters comes from the installed fonts according to the 
preference list.

And the next step is to lobby distros to include your fonts in their 
default installation.
> > If FreeSans/FreeMono is used, then there are issues with it and you need
> > to fix with Ubuntu (or "fontconfig" at FreeDesktop).
>
> I have contacted them and Gora Mohanty has replied.
>
> I am still looking at the keyboard input issue. Another screenshot
> with the correct menu interface but, incorrect display in gedit:
>
> http://www.shakthimaan.com/downloads/tamil/input-error.jpg
>
> I should be all set when this is resolved.
Please do not forget to join Thamizha, at
http://thamizha.com/
There is a forum at the Website and there is also a YahooGroups list
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThamiZhaDeveloper

This is particularly important when changing things like default fonts.

At the Website there is a new Unicode keyboard layout which
I think uses the Linux version of Keyman. You may want to have a look at it.
Keyman for Linux is at http://kmfl.sourceforge.net/

Hope this helps,
Simos