[Indic-computing-users] Including TSCII support in Mozilla (fwd)

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URL             :  http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=186463

                         [1]Bugzilla Version 2.17.1

   Bugzilla Bug 186463
     Request to provide Tamil character coding (TSCII) support Last
   modified: 2002-12-29 21:50

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   Bug#: [4]186463 alias: ____________________   Hardware: [All......]
   Reporter: tam...@ya... (Ve Elanjelian)
   Product: [Browser..............]   OS: [All.............]   Add CC:
   ______________________________
   [5]Component: [Internationalization........]   Version: [Trunk.......]
     CC:
   [_] bo...@ne...
   [_] db...@fa...
   [_] ft...@ne...
   [_] nh...@ne...
   [_] pra...@su...
   [_] Rol...@in...
   [_] smo...@ne...
   [_] Remove selected CCs
   [6]Status: NEW   [7]Priority: [--]
   [8]Resolution:   [9]Severity: [normal.....]
   [10]Assigned To: smo...@ne... (Simon Montagu)   [11]Target
   Milestone: [---............]
   QA Contact:
   ____________________________________________________________
   [12]URL: ____________________________________________________________
   Flags: ([13]Help!)   Requestee:
     blocking1.3b [.]
   Summary: ____________________________________________________________
   Status Whiteboard:
   ____________________________________________________________
   [14]Keywords:
   ____________________________________________________________

   Attachment Type Created Flags Actions
   [15]file that should demonstrate Tamil text using UTF-8 encoding
   text/html; charset=UTF-8 2002-12-22 09:39:24 none [16]Edit
   [17]The look of Mozilla 1.2.1 localised (partially) to Tamil
   image/jpeg 2002-12-29 20:38:31 none [18]Edit
   [19]Create a New Attachment (proposed patch, testcase, etc.) [20]View
   All

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   [30]Description: Opened: 2002-12-22 08:37
     _________________________________________________________________

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gec
ko/20021130
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gec
ko/20021130

At present, Mozilla doesn't provide support to view Tamil webpages. It would be
better if one may be able select Tamil by selecting View > Character Coding >
More > SE & SW Asian > Tamil.

The necessary fonts (and related info) may be obtained here:
[31]http://www.tamil.net/tscii/

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Please go to: [32]http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai//pub/pm0143/kprose1.ht
ml

Actual Results:
See the words below "in Tamil Script, TSCII format)". This shouldn't be a bunch
of question marks.

Expected Results:
A sample of Tamil characters: [33]http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai/pmdr0.gif

Two good Tamil fonts: TSCMaduram (Serif) and TSCArial (Sans-Serif)

   ------- Additional Comment [34]#1 From [35]Jo Hermans 2002-12-22 09:11
   ------- 
see also [36]bug 140013

   ------- Additional Comment [37]#2 From [38]David Baron 2002-12-22
   09:25 ------- 
The Tamil characters are in Unicode (see [39]http://www.unicode.org/charts/ ) s
o
presuming the fonts are correctly encoded (which [40]bug 140013 suggests *may*
not
be the case), then the characters should be supported when using UTF-8 or UCS2
encoding without any support from Mozilla.

Do you know if the encoding is documented somewhere?  Is it in use on the web?
What other browsers support it?  If none, then it's probably better to just
encourage sites to use UTF-8 or UCS2.

->i18n

   ------- Additional Comment [41]#3 From [42]David Baron 2002-12-22
   09:31 ------- 
The page in question has
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html"; charset="x-user-defined">

I really don't see how Mozilla is supposed to know what the character encoding
is.  Therefore it's going to assume some default, and since the Tamil font you
specified doesn't have glyphs for the characters Mozilla thinks are there, it
will (and should) use some other font.

   ------- Additional Comment [43]#4 From [44]David Baron 2002-12-22
   09:39 ------- 
[45]Created an attachment (id=109944)
file that should demonstrate Tamil text using UTF-8 encoding

   ------- Additional Comment [46]#5 From [47]Ve Elanjelian 2002-12-22
   18:38 ------- 
Thanks for the suggestions. Someday, of course, UTF-8 would become the preferre
d
encoding for all Tamil webmasters. However at present, most webmasters continue
write Tamil pages using TSCII encoding. (Mostly because UTF-8 is not supported
by WinMe, Win98, Win95.)
More info: [48]http://www.tamil.net/tscii/tscii.html

As to the "x-user-defined", it was simply a temporary measure. As explained bel
ow:

"Internationalisation part of HTML standards propose usage of "character set" t
o
display non-roman language materials. One of the near-term goals of the Interne
t
Working Group for TSCII is to get Internet Protocols Standardisation Agencies
such as IETF to accept the proposed Encoding scheme TSCII as a "char-set" for
Tamil. This is along the same lines of specific character sets we have for
Russian, Korean, Japanese, Greek etc. Then we can have TSCII as one of the
recognized character set to invoke in HTML files.

"Till that time, an immediate option is to invoke "x-user-defined" case for the
char-set in the META Header of the HTML file and have the end-user choose
TSCII-conformant Tamil font as the font to use for the "User-defined" encoding
(using Browser Preferences Menu)." [Archived at:
[49]http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/tscguide.html ]

   ------- Additional Comment [50]#6 From [51]Ve Elanjelian 2002-12-22
   18:45 ------- 
Oh btw, IE 6.0 does have a provision to Select "Tamil". ( Tools > Internet
Options > Fonts > Tamil ) Netscape and Mozilla doesn't have any such provision.
 :(

   ------- Additional Comment [52]#7 From [53]Muguntharaj 2002-12-24
   04:54 ------- 
TSCII is most widely used by tamils as of now. Mandrake Linux supports TSCII.
Till unicode becomes popular its necessary for Mozilla to support 8-bit
character encoing TSCII also.

   ------- Additional Comment [54]#8 From [55]prabu 2002-12-28 02:11
   ------- 
TSCII is the 8-bit glyph encoding standard.glibc2.3.1 includes tscii support.
TSCII is fully explained in this page...
[56]http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/tscii.html

TSCII encoding is represented in this gif
[57]http://www.tamil.net/tscii/charset17.gif
Google search for Tamil is also based on TSCII encoding only.
[58]http://dmoz.org/World/Tamil/

Because of no-support in mozilla, it is difficult for a normal 'joe' user to
view tamil sites.(Every site is forced to use currently using x-user-defined.).
As an alternate most of the sites are using dynamic fonts which is not supporte
d
in mozilla.

Since this is similair to ISO8859-1, full suport was included for TSCII in
Mandrake Linux 9.0.

 The tamil community is 70 million strong and spread across India, Sri Lanka,
Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, USA & other countries.TSCII is most commonly used
in Internet by tamils from all countries around the world. The list of sites
using TSCII is documented here..
[59]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-Uthavi/database?method=reportRows&tbl=2

We're ready to provide TSCII fonts with opentype fonts for inclusion with
Mozilla if requried under any license of your Choice..

   ------- Additional Comment [60]#9 From [61]Ve Elanjelian 2002-12-29
   20:38 ------- 
[62]Created an attachment (id=110327)
The look of Mozilla 1.2.1 localised (partially) to Tamil

The l10n is fast underway. And the its Alpha should be available for download
soon at [63]http://thamizha.com before the end of Jan'03. However, the lack of
TSCII support would deny Mozilla based browsers the much needed 'edge' that
might be necessary to 'convert' Tamil surfers around the world.
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  28. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_activity.cgi?id=186463
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  31. http://www.tamil.net/tscii/
  32. http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai//pub/pm0143/kprose1.html
  33. http://www.tamil.net/projectmadurai/pmdr0.gif
  35. mailto:jhe...@sp...
  36. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140013
  38. mailto:db...@fa...
  39. http://www.unicode.org/charts/
  40. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140013
  42. mailto:db...@fa...
  44. mailto:db...@fa...
  45. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=109944&action=view
  47. mailto:tam...@ya...
  48. http://www.tamil.net/tscii/tscii.html
  49. http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/tscguide.html
  51. mailto:tam...@ya...
  53. mailto:mug...@ya...
  55. mailto:pra...@ya...
  56. http://www.geocities.com/athens/5180/tscii.html
  57. http://www.tamil.net/tscii/charset17.gif
  58. http://dmoz.org/World/Tamil/
  59. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-Uthavi/database?method=reportRows&tbl=2
  61. mailto:tam...@ya...
  62. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=110327&action=view
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