Comments for Open Road

Comment on Community Languages Online by Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:44:57 +0000

A Thok Nath/Nuer keyboard is available at http://tavultesoft.com/keyman/downloads/keyboards/details.php?KeyboardID=386&FromKeyman=0 or if you already have Keyman installed go to http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/african/nuer/keyboards.html

We are currently planning a keyboard to support multiple Sudanese languages.

Comment on Community Languages Online by Looking for Nuer (thok Nath) Software

Looking for Nuer (thok Nath) Software — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:54:49 +0000

Let me know if you have Nuer (Thok Nath, Thanks

Comment on Burmese OpenOffice by U Myo Aung

U Myo Aung — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:02:26 +0000

I am keen in taking part in anyway in your projects regarding to Burmese. I was born in Burma, have a big and long experience of writing in Burmese even from 1970. But it was without computer but with typewriter. Now I am a pensioner with computer and broadline Internet. Doing sometime Translations from/into Burmese using WinMyanmar fonts and classical keyboard layout. I have M.Tech. Engg (Hons) Degree and I think I am still able to learn new technics.
By the way my Burmese name is U Myo Aung and in 1970-ies I was a well known popular-science writer in Burma with penname Theikpan Myo Aung.
Hope to be useful helping Burma in someway.
Yours sincerely,
U Myo Aung

Comment on The Myanmar script and Unicode by Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:14:16 +0000

Always go to http://scripts.sil.org/Padauk for the most recent version of Padauk.

The file name on the font indicates that it is version 2.1 of the font, but it currently contains version 2.2.2, or at least the windows installer does.

Comment on The Myanmar script and Unicode by Ceta

Ceta — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:32:56 +0000

Hi Andy,

Can you provide a link to download Padauk 2.2 (as you stated new-released in this web page ) ?

Thanks

Comment on Firefox and web email services: Hotmail by Katze

Katze — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:25:59 +0000

Thanks,

it works great.

Regards Stephan

Comment on Firefox and web email services: Yahoo by Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:18:06 +0000

Thanks Rassekatzen,

I hope that in the new year, I’ll have the opportunity (i.e. spare time) to complete a number of articles that are currently under development.

Including notes on Hotmail, our approach to web internationalization and multilingual typography. I’m also working on some articles looking at migrant and refugee information needs and information seeking behavior.

A mixed bag, but hopefully you’ll find something of interest in the upcoming months.

Comment on Firefox and web email services: Yahoo by Rassekatzen

Rassekatzen — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:21:56 +0000

Your blog is really very informative.

Comment on The Myanmar script and Unicode by Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:30:59 +0000

Richard Ishida has updated and released a Myanmar 5.1 character picker web utility at http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/pickers/myanmar/.

Richard has aso put togetehr soem notes on the myanmar script: http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/scriptnotes/myanmar/

Comment on Intersections in cyberspace 2: Centrelink and DIAC multilingual content by Andrew Cunningham

Andrew Cunningham — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:07:28 +0000

The side-by-side language approach is quite effective for index pages. One issue is how a multilingual website addresses accessibility requirements. One of the WCAG 1.0 priority 1 checkpoints requires marking up change in language. So Chinese and Vietnamese text needs to be appropriately identified in the markup.

Language tagging is also useful for CJK data. Using your site as an example: the site contains both Chinese and Japanese content. The stylesheets for the site do not specify the fonts to be used for Chinese and Japanese text.

When fonts aren’t specified, the web browsers will choose an appropriate CJK font based on the language tag. If the language is not specified in the markup the browser will fall back to the default font for CJK text.

Richard Ishida put together a test on web browsers’ automatic font assignment for CJK text. IE7 will default to a Simplified Chinese font for all CJK text while Firefox and IE6 will default to a Japanese font instead. Simplified Chinese text or Traditional Chinese text should not be rendered using a Japanese font. Likewise Japanese text should not be rendered using a Simplified Chinese font.

As to CMSs that support LOTE well. I don’t have a preference for any one CMS. My preference is for a CMS that is flexible and easily customised. I like to track the language of any content so that language changes can be marked up. I distinguish between the default language of a web page and the user interface language.

Internally within our own projects we have been developing PHP classes and functions that handle some of the internationalization issues. These are used in conjunction with templating systems and CSS to achieve better results within various web applications.

One important aspect, especially if Vietnamese is one of the languages that needs to be supported, is that the CMS chosen must support Unicode normalization. When you edit content, that content needs to be normalized when submitted. Before a search term is processed, the search term should be normalised. If normalisation does not occur some Vietnamese clients will not be able to search Vietnamese on a website.