Re: Arabisation and character sets

That is a good step from Microsoft towards more multilingual platform support
based on open type font technology. However, copying the Arabic Open Type font
may enable Arabic IE 4.0 to render Arabic characters correctly but what about
HTML forms or to be more specific Windows system controls like system editors,
list boxes, etc.? Are they Arabic enabled also? Do they support  ISO 8859-6,
ASMO, 1256, UTF-8?
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John McConnell wrote:

> MS IE4.01 for Arabic also supports display of Arabic on non-Arabic systems
> such as Win95 US and Japanese.
>
>         install MS IE4.01 Arabic on a non-enabled system
>
>         copy the Arabic fonts from a Win95/Arabic system to the non-enabled
> system
>
> restart IE -- it will now display Arabic in ISO 8859-6, ASMO, 1256, UTF-8
> etc.
>
> The display for Arabic obeys the Unicode bidirectional algorithm on all
> platforms i.e. it does not depend on the version of Win32.
>
> The same procedure will work with other scripts e.g. if you copy the Thai
> fonts to the non-enabled system you can view Thai pages. IE4/CS is also
> compatible with the IE4 language packs so you can add support for Japanese,
> Pan-European etc. I have all of these installed on my US NT4 system and I
> routinely view pages in many languages.



>
>
>
> John I. McConnell
> Microsoft Corp. 28/3128
> One Redmond Way 98052-6399
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ahmed Sallam [mailto:asa@sakhr.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 1998 07:50
> To: Khaled Zarkah
> Cc: www-international@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Arabisation and character sets
>
> Sindbad Netscape Navigator 4.x, 3.x and Communicator 4.x provides more than
> one level of support for Arabic charsets as follows:
> -1- Web page "CHARSET" element is supported based on the definitions in RFC
> 2070.
> -2- User option to make manual choice for the Arabic code page, if the code
> page is not specified in the web page.
> -3- Automatic detection for the Arabic code page if the code page is not
> specified in the web page nor identified manually by the user.
> The supported code pages list includes most of the Arabic code pages
> available in the Arabic market including Microsoft 1256, ISO 8859-6, ASMO,
> etc.
>
> The last versions of Sindbad for Netscape 3.x and 4.x are available on :
> http://www.sakhr.com, we provide English edition of our web site.
>
>   _____
>
> Khaled Zarkah wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> We published a review in PC Magazine, Arabic Edition, May 1997 issue, for
> MS Arabic IE 3.02, Sindbad Netscpae 3.0, and Alis Tango Browser 3.0.
>
> Another review for MS Arabic IE 4.0 will be published in 'Internet Al-Aalam
> Al-Arabi' in May 1998 issue.
>
> >   - ALis Tango and MS IE 4.0 (on Arabic Enabled Windows) render
> >     iso-8859-6 correctly
>
> That's right, and Tango renders 8859-6 correctly, even on Latin versions of
> Windows 95.
>
> >   - Netscape on an Arabic Windows and Netscape with Shakr
> >     plug-in on "normal" Windows do not render correctly.
>
> Wrong. The Sindbad add-on works fine, even on Latin Windows 95, but
> Navigator alone with Arabic Windows 95 can not render 8859-6 correctly.
>
> >   - using the proprietary Microsoft standard Windows 1256 all
> >     browsers render correctly.
>
> Right.
>
>
>
> =============================
> Khaled Zarkah
> Technical Editor
> DIT (PC Magazine, Arabic Edition & Internet Al-Aalam Al-Arabi)
> URL: www.dit.net
> Phone: +9714-240700
> Fax:   +9714-240750
> P.O.Box 60934
> Dubai
> United Arab Emirates
>