kazunobu.kuriyama@nifty.com)yjchenx@hotmail.com)bemess@kornet.net)Version: 2.2 Alpha
Date: 2004-04-08
This article illustrates how to set up GNUstep for the East Asian languages with some working examples. It also includes some useful information applicable to other non-European languages.
Copyright: (C) 2004, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This brief article illustrates how to set up your GNUstep for the East Asian languages known as CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) in literature. We assume that you already know how to set up your X Window System for your language environment such as locale, fonts, and input methods. We also assume that you selected 'art' as the backend of GNUstep's GUI.
Like other computer software made outside the region, GNUstep requires some adjustment to use those languages. The adjustment consists of the following steps:
GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING to an
appropriate value for the language in use.
NSGlobalDomain variables such as NSFont,
NSFontSize, NSUserFont, and NSLanguages
, to name a few, to
appropriate values using the GNUstep's utility defaults.
Now we explain each step in detail and give some working examples.
The art backend expects necessary true type font files to be found in the
specified directories, which are usually
$GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT/Library/Fonts
and
$GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Library/Fonts.
You need to organize font files in a certain way (see below) so that the
art backend can recognize them.
For example, suppose you have a hypothetical true type font file called
MyFont.ttf and want to allow all other users to use it.
Then, as root,
# cd $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Library/Fonts # mkdir MyFont.nfont # cd MyFont.nfont
With your favorite editor, create a file whose contents are as follows:
{
Faces = (
{
PostScriptName = "MyFont";
Name = "Regular";
Files = ("MyFont.ttf");
}
);
}
Then save it as FontInfo.plist (the format above is known as
property list in GNUstep, which explains why the extension is
plist). This small file system you've created just now is
referred to as .nfont package.
The FontInfo.plist above is just a bare-bones version. For
further details, we strongly recommend the reader to read
the file nfont_packages.txt found at
http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/nfont%20packages.
If you want to use the font file privately, replace
GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT with
GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT in the instruction above.
GNUstep assumes as default that every character is encoded in ISO8859-1 unless
the escape character \u precedes it (This exception applies to other
encodings). Hence, if you want to use the characters of your native
language with GNUstep, you have to tell it which encoding you use. This
can be done by setting the environmental variable
GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING to an appropriate value.
The possible values for GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING are as follows:
NSASCIIStringEncoding NSNEXTSTEPStringEncoding NSJapaneseEUCStringEncoding // Japanese NSUTF8StringEncoding NSISOLatin1StringEncoding // ISO-8859-1; West European NSSymbolStringEncoding NSNonLossyASCIIStringEncoding NSShiftJISStringEncoding // Japanese NSISOLatin2StringEncoding // ISO-8859-2; East European NSUnicodeStringEncoding NSWindowsCP1251StringEncoding NSWindowsCP1252StringEncoding // WinLatin1 NSWindowsCP1253StringEncoding // Greek NSWindowsCP1254StringEncoding // Turkish NSWindowsCP1250StringEncoding // WinLatin2 NSISO2022JPStringEncoding // Japanese NSMacOSRomanStringEncoding NSProprietaryStringEncoding // GNUstep additions NSKOI8RStringEncoding // Russian/Cyrillic NSISOLatin3StringEncoding // ISO-8859-3; South European NSISOLatin4StringEncoding // ISO-8859-4; North European NSISOCyrillicStringEncoding // ISO-8859-5 NSISOArabicStringEncoding // ISO-8859-6 NSISOGreekStringEncoding // ISO-8859-7 NSISOHebrewStringEncoding // ISO-8859-8 NSISOLatin5StringEncoding // ISO-8859-9; Turkish NSISOLatin6StringEncoding // ISO-8859-10; Nordic NSISOThaiStringEncoding // ISO-8859-11 NSISOLatin7StringEncoding // ISO-8859-13 NSISOLatin8StringEncoding // ISO-8859-14 NSISOLatin9StringEncoding // ISO-8859-15; Replaces ISOLatin1 NSGB2312StringEncoding NSUTF7StringEncoding // RFC 2152 NSGSM0338StringEncoding // GSM (mobile phone) default alphabet NSBIG5StringEncoding // Traditional chinese NSKoreanEUCStringEncoding // Korean
Of these values, choose an appropriate one for your purpose and set the environmental variable to it. For example, for sh or bash,
$ export GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING=NSBIG5StringEncoding
or, for csh,
% setenv GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING NSBIG5StringEncoding
Now that you've specified the encoding, you have to determine which fonts you use to display the characters of your native language.
Becuase the fonts used with GNUstep GUI are initially set to those that are appropriate for European languages, you have to overwrite them to display the characters correctly.
At least, you need to change the user default value NSFont,
and NSBoldFont.
For example, suppose you have a hypothetical .nfont package
called MyFont and MyBoldFont,
and want to use it to display the characters.
To do this, use the GNUstep's utility defaultsas follows:
$ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSFont MyFont $ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSBoldFont MyBoldFont
Depending on a situation, you may also need to set NSUserFont
to MyFont. (In GNUstep, a pair of a key and a value such as
(NSFont, MyFont) is referred to as a dictionary.)
To confirm the value, use
$ defaults read
If you want to remove the assignment entirely to revert to the original default value, use
$ defaults delete NSGlobalDomain NSFont $ defaults delete NSGlobalDomain NSBoldFont
For further details about the user default values, the reader can refer to
the documents DefaultsSummary.html and NSFont.html
shipped with the GNUstep core library package.
You can also change the default language (English) into your native language. If an application has a directory called MyLanguage.lproj in the bundle (could be in Resources/ directory), it may be localized for that language. To enable this functionality, which displays the interface in that language, you need to set the user default value NSLanguages to the language. Otherwise, it will fall back to the default one (English). To change the default language, use
$ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSLanguages "(MyLanguage)"
In the following examples, we assume that the reader has already set up the
X Window System properly for her/his language environment. In particular,
the locale the reader wants to use must be supported by both the C
starndard library and the X library of the system in use. Before trying some
of the examples, make sure the environmental variables governing encoding are set
to appropriate values. Such variables include LC_ALL,
LC_CTYPE, and LANG.
GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING=NSBIG5StringEncoding LC_CTYPE=zh_TW.Big5
Here, use Arphic MingTi font as example
First, make a directory for an .nfont package you are going to make:
$ cd $GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT/Library/Fonts (or $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Library/Fonts)
$ mkdir 'MingTi.nfont'
$ cd 'MingTi'
Make a copy of the font file in the directory.
$ ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/bsmi00lp.ttf ./
And write a FontInfo.plist (see below).
{
Face = (
{
PostScriptName = "MingTi";
Name = "Regular";
Files = ("bsmi00lp.ttf")
}
);
}
$ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSFont MingTi $ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSBoldFont MingTi $ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSLanguages "(TraditionalChinese)"
GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING=NSJapaneseEUCStringEncoding LANG=ja_JP
If you are using Windows with Japanese (and have valid owership of it), you may have msgothic.ttc or msmincho.ttc in the Windows machine. If this is the case, you can use them to make your own .nfont packages. We'll give an example below when msgothic.ttc is used.
First, make a directory for an .nfont package you are going to make:
$ cd $GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT/Library/Fonts (or $GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT/Library/Fonts) $ mkdir 'MS Gothic.nfont' $ cd 'MS Gothic'
Make a copy of the font file in the directory, say, assuming the Windows' partition /dev/hda1 is to be mounted at /mnt/win98:
$ mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/win98 $ cp /mnt/win98/windows/fonts/msgothic.ttc .
And write a FontInfo.plist (see below).
{
Faces = (
{
PostScriptName = "MS Gothic";
Name = "Regular";
Files = ("msgothic.ttc")
}
);
}
$ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSFont 'MS Gothic' $ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSUserFont 'MS Gothic'
CAVEAT: If you use the font files mentioned above, you must use them within your own right. The instruction given above never changes any rights and duties you have to use these fonts.
GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING=NSKoreanEUCEncoding
GPL'ed Korean fonts are available at
http://chem.skku.ac.kr/~wkpark/project/font/UnFonts/
Create a directory for a .nfont package for Korean fonts, say
Un.nfont:
$ cd $GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT/Library/Fonts $ mkdir Un.nfont $ cd Un
And write a FontInfo.plist (see below).
{
Faces = (
{
PostScriptName = "Un";
Name = "Regular";
Files = ("UnDotum.ttf");
}
);
}
$ defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSFont Un
Although this article has focused on the CJK languages, most part of it is also applicable to other languages if GNUstep supports the enconding you need.
If you find a way to set up GNUstep for your native language other than CJK, please consider to contribute it to the GNUstep community to share your invaluable experience with others. We'll greatly appreciate it. Comments or suggestions are also welcome.