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Name: clC74495 Date: 06/04/98 I submitted bug/proposal 4072406. The evaluator misunderstood the 2nd part of my proposal. I proposed adding support for HTML/SGML/XML-type character entity names (&name;) so that non-ASCII characters can easily be entered into: 1) Java source code - This is a mere convenience for me. This is what the evaluator evaluated. Forget it. I don't really care about it. I can use \uxxxx format. 2) TextFields in a running Java program - This is the important issue: How do users enter Unicode characters into a running Java program? Sample Uses: * A user wants to put a Chinese character into a Java text editor. * A user wants to put a Greek character or math symbol into the axis label for a graph in a graphing program. * Java has made great effort to support Unicode: reading/writing Unicode in various character encodings in files and internal support for 32 bit char and Strings. But there is no standard way for a user to enter characters beyond 255 into a textField. * In Windows 95, I can enter some (not all!) of characters 160 - 255 with the Alt+0xxx technique. But there is no support for other characters (beyond 255). * In Windows 95, I can call up the system character map. But this just generates a character number 0 - 255 in a Windows font. (Users are then supposed to paste the character into their word processor document and manually change the font to some other Windows font, e.g., Map Symbols. But Java programs can't access many system fonts.) The character map does not generate the Unicode character, which is what the Java program needs to receive. * Users in other countries often have easy access to some of characters 160-255 from their keyboard, but I (in the U.S.) don't. * Yes, I have in fact made my own translator so that users can enter character entity names in my programs and my programs can translate them to/from Unicode characters. I got some SGML/XML names from Rick Jelliffe (###@###.###) (file: xml-ISOents.txt at www.sil.org/sgml) but it is incomplete and I made up some myself. Most I just support via &number; But shouldn't there be a standard way to do this? * I think it is important that there be standard names. Users shouldn't have to know my companies' names and some other companies' names. The names should be consistent across all programs (hopefully, across XML, too). The standard needs to be set by Java. * Quick: how would you enter a Greek alpha into a textField in a Java program? Alternative: Character entity names are nice, but it would be a big system and a big job. Perhaps there could be some other (standard!) way to enter characters based on their numbers. For example, an extension of the Windows system of Alt0xxxx that supported Unicode numbers. I could provide my users with online tables of character numbers and symbols. Character numbers wouldn't be as easy for users: I think alpha is easier to remember as &agr; (say "a Greek") than as Altx3b01 (actually, I would prefer α, but I'm not in charge of SGML). And if you know &agr;, you can guess that mu is &mgr;. But Alt0xxxx numbers would be a system to get those characters in to TextFields. Final plea: I think it is important that there be a standard way to do this. So that a user on Windows, Mac or Unix systems do it the same way. The operating systems aren't helpful here; Java needs to lead the way. Thank you. (Review ID: 25924) * Java has made great effort to support Unicode: reading/writing Unicode in various character encodings in files and internal support for 32 bit char and Strings. But there is no standard way for a user to enter characters beyond 255 into a textField. * In Windows 95, I can enter some (not all!) of characters 160 - 255 with the Alt+0xxx technique. But there is no support for other characters (beyond 255). * In Windows 95, I can call up the system character map. But this just generates a character number 0 - 255 in a Windows font. (Users are then supposed to paste the character into their word processor document and manually change the font to some other Windows font, e.g., Map Symbols. But Java programs can't access many system fonts.) The character map does not generate the Unicode character, which is what the Java program needs to receive. * Users in other countries often have easy access to some of characters 160-255 from their keyboard, but I (in the U.S.) don't. * Yes, I have in fact made my own translator so that users can enter character entity names in my programs and my programs can translate them to/from Unicode characters. I got some SGML/XML names from Rick Jelliffe (###@###.###) (file: xml-ISOents.txt at www.sil.org/sgml) but it is incomplete and I made up some myself. Most I just support via &number; But shouldn't there be a standard way to do this? * I think it is important that there be standard names. Users shouldn't have to know my companies' names and some other companies' names. The names should be consistent across all programs (hopefully, across XML, too). The standard needs to be set by Java. * Quick: how would you enter a Greek alpha into a textField in a Java program? Alternative: Character entity names are nice, but it would be a big system and a big job. Perhaps there could be some other (standard!) way to enter characters based on their numbers. For example, an extension of the Windows system of Alt0xxxx that supported Unicode numbers. I could provide my users with online tables of character numbers and symbols. Character numbers wouldn't be as easy for users: I think alpha is easier to remember as &agr; (say "a Greek") than as Altx3b01 (actually, I would prefer α, but I'm not in charge of SGML). And if you know &agr;, you can guess that mu is &mgr;. But Alt0xxxx numbers would be a system to get those characters in to TextFields. Final plea: I think it is important that there be a standard way to do this. So that a user on Windows, Mac or Unix systems do it the same way. The operating systems aren't helpful here; Java needs to lead the way. Thank you. (company - CoHort Software , email - ###@###.###) ======================================================================
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