"Himanshu Garg" <himanshu.garg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>        
>        I am exploring ways to incorporate opentype fonts for indic
> scripts. If I am correct UNICODE support is already there in squeak.
Yes, to some extent we have Unicode support. To the best of
my knowlegde we do not currently have support for
   * scripts that are written from right to left
   * scripts that require script shaping 

>       Can I use the operating system support for OpenType fonts or to
> preserve Squeak's portability all that has to be rewritten in
> Smalltalk.
I really do not know how to use the Windows Uniscribe machinery
from within Squeak.
We are also not prepared to do script shaping in Squeak. Currently
we do not even read some OpenType tables that are needed for
script shaping (Notably GSUB, GPOS, GDEF). I tried
to do that but I find features and contextual substitution extremely
difficult to understand. (The font MANGAL.TTF uses contextual
substitution to render Devanagari script, LATHA.TTF uses contextual
substitution for Tamil). The interpretation of features requires
great flexibility because seemingly no two fonts use exactly the same
features.)

For the beginning, you can install OpenTypeViewer from SqueakMap.
(see: http://www.bgaertner.gmxhome.de/OpenTypeViewer.htm)
This will give you
 * the possibility to look into OpenType font files
 * incomplete support to read some OpenType tables that
    are not read by the TTF support classes of the standard image.

At this very moment I do not plan to develop subclasses of
ParagraphEditor that will be able to make use of the GSUB
and GPOS data of an OpenType font - its simply too
difficult for now. For now I would be glad to understand
contextual glyph substitution.

Two years ago I tried to implement some support for
Devanagari, Tamil and Telugu that was based on StrikeFonts
(the bitmapped fonts of Squeak that are permanently stored in
the image), but that is now an unfinished and almost dead
project (it was done in Squeak 3.6).
> 
>       I would be grateful even if you provided some pointers. I am
> familiar with UNICODE/OpenType/Indic scripts etc but have no idea how
> the support should come to Squeak.
> 
>       I look forward to your reply.
> 
> Thank You,
> Himanshu.
> --
> 
Greetings,
Boris