Language Support

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.

Enhanced Language Framework

The Solaris operating environment has expanded its language support in major areas:

• Expanded Unicode support for multiscript development and deployment

• Support for complex text layout languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai

• Support for the Internet Intranet Input Method Protocol (IIIMP) so thin client users can take advantage of server-based input methods

• Support for the downloading and management of PostScript fonts to PostScript printers

Expanded Unicode Support

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.

Complex Text Support

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.

Internet Intranet Input Method Protocol Support

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 JavaStations^TM and want to be able to take advantage of the input methods on the server.

Enhanced Font Management

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.

Expanded Locale Support

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.

"Euro" Currency Support

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.

New User Locales

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