This release of the Java Desktop System
only supports the HKSCS-1999 version of the Hong Kong Supplementary Character
Set (HKSCS), due to the version of glibc that the
system uses. Support for HKSCS-2001 is planned for a future release of the Java Desktop System. The differences between HKSCS-1999 and
HKSCS-2001 are as follows:
-
HKSCS-1999 uses ISO-10646/Unicode PUA (Private Use Area) to
assign code for additional characters defined in HKSCS that were not part
of ISO-10646/Unicode as of 1999, and is not, and will not be an official part
of ISO-10646/Unicode.
-
HKSCS-2001 uses ISO-10646/Unicode Plane 2 for the same characters
defined in HKSCS-1999 instead of PUA, because the HKSCS character repertoire
is accepted as an official part of ISO-10646/Unicode.
-
HKSCS-2001 supports an additional 116 characters over HKSCS-1999.
Since code assignment between HKSCS-1999 and HKSCS-2001 is different,
although ISO-10646/Unicode with HKSCS-1999 works in this release of the Java Desktop System, any documents using characters in HKSCS-1999
need code conversion, as if they are written in legacy encodings such as EUC
or Big5, to interchange with the systems using ISO-10646/Unicode with HKSCS-2001.
The version of glibc that supports HKSCS-2001
is available for download for this release of the Java Desktop
System, together with the HKSCS-1999 to HKSCS-2001 code converter.
