Xref: utzoo comp.misc:7031 comp.unix.questions:16635 comp.windows.x:13873 sci.lang.japan:752 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!voa3!ck From: ck@voa3.UUCP (Chris Kern) Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.unix.questions,comp.windows.x,sci.lang.japan Subject: Re: Marketing wizardry & handling of far-east languages. Summary: Xerox markets software for multilingual word processing. Message-ID: <295@voa3.UUCP> Date: 29 Sep 89 12:31:01 GMT References: <5508@zyx.ZYX.SE> <5557@tank.uchicago.edu> <11171@smoke.BRL.MIL> <5566@tank.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: ck@voa3.UUCP (Chris Kern) Followup-To: comp.misc Organization: Voice of America, Washington, D.C. Lines: 53 In article <5566@tank.uchicago.edu> goer@sophist.UUCP (Richard Goerwitz) writes: > ... The problem I have found (and, regardless of ter- >minology, it seems real enough to me) is that no one has come up >with a standard interface that: > > 1) offers flexible creating and use of multiple fonts in the > same window > 2) offers proportional spacing and/or overstrike, or some other > ready means of getting languages like Arabic on the screen > 3) offers access to various wordwrap methods for (1) and (2) > Xerox markets sophisticated multilingual word processing software in its ViewPoint product line. We currently have word processing in 31 languages, including some difficult ones, such as Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi, and will have 43 languages installed by the middle of next year. We tend to use the software mono- or bi-lingually; typically, our radio scripts are composed in one foreign language with a little bit of English thrown in. However, there is no limit to the number of languages that can be included in a single document. The typing logic is sensible (except in a few cases where well-established national standards mandate a typewriter-style approach to typing, although it probably is sensible to follow the standard if that's how everyone in that culture is taught to type). Rendering is handled properly on the user's video monitor as well as in the laser printed hard-copy. Our native speaker users say the quality of the fonts ranges from good to outstanding. Essentially, everything works exactly as the user expects. Some genuinely difficult technical obstacles must be overcome to accomplish that. It is not just a matter of drawing the fonts properly. (Imagine an English phrase followed by its Chinese translation, drawn from a universe of 10,000 discrete Chinese characters, with an intervening parenthetical expression in Arabic, which is written right-to-left and where many of the individual letters can assume up to four different shapes depending on their position within a word. Now imagine what the software has to do as you type that string of words serially. Or backspace over or otherwise edit part of it after you have typed it.) We're quite pleased with the quality of the individual languages. But the *generality* of the system is astounding. Currently, ViewPoint runs on Xerox's proprietary Mesa processor, but the company has announced plans to port its office automation software to a UNIX platform (specifically, a SPARC processor produced by or under license from Sun). (I have no connection to Xerox except as a customer.) -- Chris Kern Voice of America, Washington, D.C. ...uunet!voa3!ck +1 202-485-7020