From: bernie Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:06:39 +0000 (+0200) Subject: Edit page EthiopianLocale X-Git-Url: https://codewiz.org/gitweb?a=commitdiff_plain;h=e80614aeeb8ee8ff62dfc41d4284546156454ee7;p=wiki.git Edit page EthiopianLocale --- diff --git a/EthiopianLocale b/EthiopianLocale new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d26d082 --- /dev/null +++ b/EthiopianLocale @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +== sysconfig == + +To enable the Amharic Ethiopian locale, the /etc/sysconfig/i18n +file needs to contain: + +{{{ +LANG=am_ET.UTF-8 +}}} + +To alleviate boot overhead with UTF-8 locales, we'd like to +move this setting to a later point in the boot process. +olpc-dm would be a good candidate. + +AI: I'm going to make some tests and report back. + + +== glibc == + +F7 glibc does not even boot when am_ET is enabled, but it's not +obvious why. Suffice to say that the output of ls comes out +sorted by strlen() when am_ET is enabled!!! + +glibc-2.6 from F8 is ok, but I can't find an obvious patch to +backport. The only recent addition to the am_ET locale has +been to discard accents in string comparisons. + +Moreover, the glibc-2.6 rpm post-install scriptlet fails silently +on jffs2, corrupting the locale archive. It happens because +the build-locale-archive tool tries to use a shared writable +file map which is not supported. + +The glibc-2.6 rpm is available from bernie-olpc. + + * AI: Of course we don't want to upgrade to 2.6 at this time, so I'm asking the glibc hackers for insight. + +== Fonts == + +A good candidate that provides high-quality Ethiopian glyphs is the +Abyssinica-SIL.ttf, which is not packaged in Fedora. + +I grabbed the TTF file from the Debian package ttf-sil-abyssinica-1.0 +and temporarily installed it in /home/olpc/.fonts/ + +I'm not sure the font license is acceptable for Fedora or even us. +Someone with better understanding should check. + + * AI: I could easily create an RPM once we decide this is the font we want to use. + + +== ET keyboard layout == + +The updated xkeyboard-config RPM shipped with latest builds +already contains the "et" keyboard layout. + +This can set in xorg.conf, or loaded for testing like so: + +{{{ +setxkbmap -v -model olpc et +}}} + +The "=" key is not working in current builds, but Sergey +has already fixed it upstream and we'll pick it up with +the next update. + + * AI: I'll send a new olpc patch upstream to resync + + * AI: I'll update our RPM from a CVS snapshot of xkeyboard-config + + +== libX11 == + +Sergey's Compose file for am_ET is already upstream, and it +is required for XIM-baded composition to work in all applications. + +I prepared an updated RPM and staged in OlpcBernie. + +Even with this new RPM installed, XIM does not appear to work in +Abiword and other utilities I tried. + +Furthermore, the Compose works by pressing a vowel, followed +by a consonant, which seems to be a less convenient way +of producing glyphs (see below) + + * AI: Sergey said he'll check if CONSONANT+VOWEL is possible with XIM. + + +== GTK IM == + +GTK contains an Amharic input method which is currently outdated. +I'm in contact with the author, Daniel Yacob, who'll soon port +his latest patch to the current version of GTK. +This probably means we'll have to fork the gtk2 package too. +I'm unable to tell how important these changes would be for users. + +Lidet Tilahun, a professor of Ethiopian at Harvard, tried typing +on the XO with this IM and confirmed that this would be the +preferred method. It's basically CONSONANT+VOWEL, with a way +to switch in a CONSONANT-only mode. + +Additionally, it seems this IM requires the "us" keyboard. +I couldn't get it to work with the "et" keyboard loaded. +Daniel says it shouldn't happen. + + * AI: waiting for a patch. Progress is being tracked here: + http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101360 + +== Write.activity == + +We couldn't get glyph composing to give correct visual +feedback on the XO. + +On F7, Abiword works fine, but it's an old version that still +used Xft directly. The version we use now switched to pango +and apparently regressed on this. + +I asked uwog about it and he suggested me to file a bug +upstream. Without this fix, the IM is still usable, but +very unfriendly. + + * AI: I will file the bug upstream. + + +== Other Gtk applications == + +I tried installing gedit on an XO, and I couldn't get +neither the Amharic, nor the XIM input methods to work +with it. + +Works fine on F7. + + * AI: Needs investigation. + + +== Misc issues == + +System stability appears to be somewhat compromised when all +the above changes are enabled. + +I've seen activities crashing randomly and funny rendering +problems. + + * AI: Before we even start filing bugs on this, I'd prefer to + see some of the above components land in the builds, otherwise + we might be chasing bugs that are even harder to reproduce.