Short: A Unicode implementation for the Amiga Author: shillito@tpg.com.au (Ken Shillito) Uploader: shillito tpg com au (Ken Shillito) Type: text/show Architecture: m68k-amigaos Ucode implements the Unicode standard for the Amiga. It is freeware, and all the software and glyphs can be used in Amiga applications free of charge. (Unicode is a system for writing all the world's languages, and is required for full implemenation of HTML4, CSS2 and JAVA. It will eventually replace all other text encoding methods) Ucode consists of the following: - a minimal set of a couple of thousand glyphs - ucode.guide very complete documentation - a library ucode.library - a program GlyphViewer for viewing Unicode glyphs - a program FontMaker for making any selected set of Unicode glyphs into an Amiga font - a program GlyphEditor for editing Unicode glyphs - a program UcodeSlave which accepts many ARexx commands for using ucode.library's capabilities - some demonstration assembler programs - lots of sample ARexx scripts ucode.library puts Unicode onto windows. Here is what ucode.library can do - it lets you put characters of mixed sizes and styles into a line. - all the text attributes required for HTML4/CSS2 are implemented. - the complete range of many diacritical marks can be added to characters. - text formats itself into lines, and scrolls itself as required. - text can be copied to the clip board and pasted. - text can be saved as self-contained objects which can format themselves and print themselves on Amigas which don't have Ucode installed. - the full Unicode bidirectionality algorithm is implemented. - character shaping (e.g. of Arabic and Indian alphabets) takes place automatically. - ucode.library understands the UTF8 and UTF16 methods of transmitting text. It also understands all the heritage methods such as Latin-1, Latin-2, Shift-JIS, Big5, and many others. It accepts input in any of these formats. ucode.library also understands all the HTML4 ways of showing characters like “ “ and the like. - ucode.library lets you have commonly used glyphs in memory for maximum speed while having surprisingly fast access to less used glyphs direct from disk. - (ucode.library has to use its own method of storing glyphs, because Amiga outline fonts are too slow and memory hungry to use for Unicode). ucode.library can algorithmically resize characters about 100 times faster than Amiga outline fonts. ucode.library's algorithms for glyph resizing are much better than graphics.library's algorithms, and of comparable quality to outline fonts over small ranges (not big ranges). - ucode.library can grab glyphs "on the fly" from any Amiga font, so it is not limited to its built-in glyphs - routines to facilitate the use of Locale catalogs Ordinary amigas can thus display text from all the world's writing systems in a way that is practical and does not overtax system resources¸ and is reasonably easy to program. Ucode comes with a small set of only a couple of thousand glyphs, however I will put "Ucode Glyph Packs" on the Aminet to rapidly expand the glyphs available. I already have a virtually complete set of glyphs for Unicode values 0000 - FFFF in various sizes. Ucode is a step towards a full HTML4 and CSS2 (style sheet) implementation for the Amiga. Increasingly text on the web and elsewhere will be ported in Unicode UTF8 form. My Unicode implementation makes all this available to the Amiga. Coming right away ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - The first "Ucode glyph packs" to supplement the minimal number of glyphs included with this distribution Coming very soon (already written and being debugged) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - A unicode-capable AmigaGuide viewer - A unicode-cabable Text Editor - Extensions to the abilities of ucode.library - More Ucode Glyph Packs