[indiana-discuss] [i18n-discuss] OpenSolaris 2008.11 build_98 test res

[Shinobu Matsuzuka]

Hello, 
sorry about a late response. Please see below.

> 
> 2.  We really don't expect the default fonts to do
> those screwy things, even if it only involves m, @,
> and perhaps a few other letters/symbols, do we?
> (IOW, even if one character is garbled, then it
> should not have been selected as the default font,
> should it?  We shouldn't expect a user to have to
> change the system fonts.  But doing so has another
>  unintended consequence, please see what follows.)

You are right that the default font should work fine. I originally tested with an
earlier build. But with 99, there is a problem. It is clearly a bug, and I believe
it will be fixed soon.

> 
> 3.  Typically, I always install the en_US locale of
> OpenSolaris.  But, then I will get Chinese filenames
> screwed up in OpenOffice.org.  (This problem has been
> solved in Linux and Windows, Solaris is the only
> operating system that still has this problem.) 

After asking around, I got some idea that this issue is caused by 
imperfect glyph fallback. 
There appears to be a "limited" workaround, which is:
to start OpenOffice.org after setting the below shell environment.

SAL_DISABLE_FC_SUBST=0

This is not a complete solution, as it has side effects, such as
- import of documents which request non-available fonts becomes
   worse
- some glyph-fallbacks result in wrong glyphs (empty or substitution
   glyphs), which in many circumstances also makes things worse

I agree this issue is also a bug, and will need to be fixed.

> 
> 6.  Even with the Chinese version of OpenSolaris, if
> I change the default font setting, I will again screw
> up the OpenOffice Chinese font display.

Is this essentially same as 3?

> 
> 7.  I am totally at a loss why the default fonts for
> the en_US locale could be different, depending on
> whether I install the English version or Chinese
> version of OpenSolaris?  This is very weird and
> indeed unacceptable.  I think (& definitely hope)
> someone could address this problem, considering Sun
> has so much manpower on the g11n/i18n thing.

As long as you are in en_US locale, whether you installed Chinese locale
or not should not affect the behavior of en_US. Which issue are you
referring to here?
There is no such a thing like Chinese version or English version, by the way. 
All language support is an add-on, each can co-exist. 


> 
> 8.  I did not change the name of or create new
> directories when I change the log-in locale.
> Whatever has been done by the developers causes the
> GNOME desktop unable to find the "Desktop" directory
> and it becomes almost totally unusable when I switch
>  the log-in locale from Chinese to English.

I am seeing a different kind of issue with this functionality.
- started a Chinese session
- downloaded a file. This went into 桌面 directory.
- logged out and re-loggin in English.
- answered "yes" for name change
- Both 桌面 and Desktop exist under my home directory, and the
  previously downloaded file is under 桌面 instead of Desktop.
I need to think about this more and want to test how Gnome on other
platform works with this one.

> 
> 9.  I think most of the problems are easily solvable.
> The key issue is still the garbled Chinese fonts in
> OpenOffice.org dialog window.  Before this problem
> is solved, OpenSolaris will not go beyond a piece of
> plastic disc that no one has the intention to
>  install.
> 
> 10.  My offer still stands.  If Sun Beijing is
> willing to hire a student intern to specifically
> solve these problems, I will pay for his/her stipend.
> Everything else in OpenSolaris is progressing so
> well, let's hope we will be able to timely remove
>  this major stumbling block.

Thanks for reporting problems. These are valuable, and I believe the bugs 
are being addressed. Thanks for your offer about the interns. But the 
person does not need to be Sun's intern. I'd love to see more students 
coming to the OpenSolaris I18n/L10n community to work together to make 
it better. We'll certainly continue to work on that too. 

Regards,
-shinobu
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