The Solaris operating environment adds new language support for complex text layout languages, the Internet Intranet Input Method Protocol, management of third-party fonts, Unicode, and over 30 new or enhanced locales.
The Solaris operating environment has expanded its language support in major areas:
Expanded Unicode support for multiscript development and deployment
Support for the Internet Intranet Input Method Protocol (IIIMP) so thin client users can take advantage of server-based input methods
Sun Microsystems has a vision of multilingual computing in which multiscript Unicode locales play a starring role. Solaris has been a strong supporter of open, industry standards, and with this release offers expanded support for the Unicode standard, v2.0. with six new Unicode UTF-8 locales - French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Europe. (Europe will return the Euro as the default currency symbol.)
Of particular interest to users and developers is the inclusion of multiscript capabilities. For example, in the Solaris 7 operating environment, enhancements have been made to each of the en_US.UTF-8 locales so that users can input and display text from different writing scripts such as Japanese, Thai, and Russian. They can easily switch between the scripts as needed without having to change or install a new locale. Here are some of the scripts users can input and display in when using any locale: Arabic, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Thai, Cyrillic, the Western, Eastern, and Northen European scripts, Turkish, and Greek. In addition, a graphical codeset converter is included for ease in converting user data between the various codesets.
Solaris 7 software has integrated support for complex text layout languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai, which require special text pre-processing to handle bidirectional, composite, and context-sensitive text. Developers can take advantage of the new text processing and rendering support to create applications tailored for these markets.
Solaris 7 software implements the Internet Intranet Input Method Protocol (IIIMP) to enable seamless interoperability between the input methods provided in Solaris, Java, and non-X Windows applications. The IIIMP protocol defines how input methods for non-X Window systems-based applications (including Java applications and applets) should perform, and provides a platform-independent solution for customers who have thin clients such as network computers or JavaStationsTM and want to be able to take advantage of the input methods on the server.
Solaris 7 has enhanced its font support through a new Desktop Font Downloader application so that users can easily use and manage third-party PostScript Type 1 and TrueType fonts in their Solaris environments.
The proper support of the user environment is important to Sun, and with this release, Solaris software provides enhancements to over thirty locales to better meet user needs. These include changes to support the new "Euro" currency scheduled to take effect January 1999.
In 1997, the European Community (EC) has agreed to standardize on a single currency, called "Euro." Beginning January 1999, all foreign exchange, banking, and finance industries in the EC will convert from using their local currencies to using the Euro.
In anticipation of this changeover, Solaris 7 software has added support for the Euro currency with sixteen new user locales. These are described in the following tables. The input mechanism for the Euro currency symbol in these locales conforms to the short-term proposal on Euro symbol input recommendations of the European Commission. These optional locales are for use by developers and users who need to work with the Euro. Local currency symbols are still available for backwards compatibility.
Solaris software already supports most of the European locales and with this release has focused on expanding its support for the Eastern European, Thai, and the Middle Eastern regions. New user locales in the Solaris 7 operating environment are listed in the following tables.
Table 3-1 New and Changed User Locales
Region |
Locale Name |
ISO Code Set |
Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Albania |
sq_AL |
8859-2 |
|
Bosnia |
nr |
8859-2 |
|
Bulgaria |
bg_BG |
8859-5 |
|
Croatia |
hr_HR |
8859-2 |
|
Estonia |
et |
8859-15 |
The default codeset has been changed to ISO 8859-15 from ISO 8859-1. |
Finland |
su changed to fi |
-- |
Changed to comply with ISO standards |
France |
fr.UTF-8 |
UTF-8 |
|
Germany |
de.UTF-8 |
UTF-8 |
|
Israel |
he |
8859-8 |
|
Italy |
it.UTF-8 |
UTF-8 |
|
Latvia |
lt |
8859-13 |
The default codeset has been changed to ISO 8859-4 from ISO 8859-13. |
Lithuania |
lv |
8859-13 |
The default codeset has been changed to ISO 8859-4 from ISO 8859-13. |
Macedonia |
mk_MK |
8859-5 |
|
Norway |
no_NY |
8859-1 |
|
Romania |
ro_RO |
8859-2 |
|
Russia |
ru |
KOI-8 |
The default codeset has been changed to KOI-8 from ISO 8859-5. The ISO8859-5 based Russian locale will still be available as ru. The new locale will be ru.K0I8-R. |
Saudi Arabia |
ar |
8859-6 |
|
Serbia |
sr_SP |
8859-5 |
|
Slovakia |
sl_SK |
8859-2 |
|
Slovenia |
sl_SI |
8859-2 |
|
Spain |
es.UTF-8 |
UTF-8 |
|
Sweden |
sv.UTF-8 |
UTF-8 |
|
Thailand |
th_TH |
TIS 620-2533 |
|
United Kingdom |
en_UK changed to en_GB |
|
Changed to comply with ISO standards |
Table 3-2 New User Locales To Support the Euro Currency
Region |
Locale Name |
ISO Code Set |
---|---|---|
Austria |
de_AT.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Belgium |
fr_BE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Denmark |
da.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Finland |
fi.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
France |
fr.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Germany |
de.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Greece |
el.sun_eu_greek |
8859-7 (modified) |
Ireland |
en_IE.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Italy |
it.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Netherlands |
nl.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Portugal |
pt.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Spain |
es.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Sweden |
sv.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
United Kingdom |
en_GB.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |
Europe |
en_EU.ISO8859-15 |
8859-15 |