[libreoffice-users] Re: Limited Unicode Support in LibreOffice 4.1.4.2? Character insertion, non-zero (SMP, SIP) planes, and multi language documents.

This reply goes to every one who has offered their help. I just want to say
thank you. I have tried out LO on Ubuntu 12.04 and on Windows 7 in a VM, and
these issues are simply almost gone on the Linux platform but remain the
same on the virtual Windows. 

I will briefly answer all my questions in the following, with a short
summary.

Environment: Ubuntu 12.04 64bit in VMWare, clean install; LibreOffice
4.1.4.2, deb package; extra fonts copied from Windows to support CJK chars
in plane 2 (though the AR UL font also supports this), Tibetan script (using
Microsoft Himalaya), Burmese (not sure if Ubuntu has a supporting font so
just copied one), Gothic (using Code2000 fonts or Segoe UI Symbol) and more
signs (using Segoe UI Symbol).


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 1. no unicode code point entry field in the dialog
>
> This is UNNECESSARY for Ubuntu/Linux because I have learned it has
> built-in support for direct keyboard input of unicode characters without
> limitation found in Windows (that you can only enter a code point lower
> than U+10000 using keyboard direct input).


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 2. wrong detection of unicode ranges
>
> This is NOT observed in LO on Ubuntu. All fonts are properly detected of
> their supported unicode ranges. And yes, LO follows the Unicode Standard
> in this.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 3. limited support for fonts with non-zero plane glyphs
>
> This is NOT observed in LO on Ubuntu. Full range support for these fonts,
> including those of which LO don't show their non-zero plane glyphs in
> Windows.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 4. no built-in mechanism to produce glyphs from typed code points
>
> This is UNNECESSARY for Ubuntu/Linux. See issue 1.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 5. unstable detection of unicode ranges: weird behaviors in the Special  
> Characters dialog
>
> As of this post is composed, I haven't experienced any such behavior.
> Seeing that the unicode ranges are also correctly detected and fully
> supported here, I am confident this won't happen in Ubuntu/Linux.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 6. broken bi-di display (on same line ) in mixed-script document
>
> This is NOT observed in LO on Ubuntu if you copy text from a web browser
> or type in text. However, if you try to open an HTML page straight from
> LO, which I do so only for testing, the display do get screwed up.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 7. Broken glyph display in mixed-script document
>
> This is NOT observed in LO on Ubuntu if you assign a proper language to
> the text. If you don't, the glyphs may show up as blobs, but once you set
> it right, the glyphs are shown proper. Try it with Tibetan and Gothic.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 8. problematic character spacing
>
> This is NOT observed in LO on Ubuntu if you assign a proper language to
> the text. If you don't, the glyphs may display errneously, but once you
> set it right, the glyphs are shown proper. Try it with Thai.


♪͡♪♪͡♪Neil Ren♪͡♪♪͡♪ wrote
> 9. wrong font information for mixed language documents
>
> There is ongoing discussion of the issue of automatic font selection, but
> at least you don't make your glyph go wrong by using a wrong font.

Verdict: Unicode support of LO is much better on Ubuntu/Linux than on
Windows, speaking of non-zero plane code points and complex scripts. This is
possibly due to originality of LO as a Linux application later ported to
Windows platform, and also due to Windows' running parallel in Unicode and
ANSI modes, the latter for backward compatibility.

I'll perhaps try LO out on a Windows 8.1 system in a VM if possible, and if
I do that I'll continue to update this post.



-----
"雷聲 靐䨻": if you can see four Chinese characters instead of blobs or question marks than your 
browser/OS has a good support for Unicode and CJK characters! (P.S. the four chracters put together 
means "loud thunder")
--
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Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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