26 April 2001 Unicode and Windows XP, IUC 18 (Hong Kong) Unicode and Windows XP Cathy Wissink Program Manager, Globalization Windows Division Microsoft

26 April 2001 Unicode and Windows XP, IUC 18 (Hong Kong)

Unicode and Windows XPUnicode and Windows XP

Cathy WissinkProgram Manager, Globalization Windows DivisionMicrosoft


AgendaAgenda

Brief Overview of Approach and History International Functionality on Windows What’s Different in Windows XP? What’s Beyond Windows XP? Conclusions and Resources


Approach and HistoryApproach and History


Our Approach Our Approach (or: How did we get where we are today?)(or: How did we get where we are today?)

Include full Unicode support from onset Leverage Uniscribe, OpenType, NLS Migrate towards a single worldwide

source (reached in Windows 2000) Develop and refine Multilingual User

Interface functionality Continue to add new international

functionality (Windows Text Services Framework, etc.)


Our History Our History (or: Well, how did we get here?)(or: Well, how did we get here?)

Genesis of NT (1991): Go with Unicode! NT 4.0 (1996): many Unicode components,

but still strong code page dependency NT 5.0, renamed Windows 2000 (2000):

single worldwide source Windows XP (2001): merge of the NT

international functionality with the consumer experience of Windows 95/98/ME


International FunctionalityInternational Functionality

NLS (National Language Support), including the locale model

Uniscribe (including OpenType)Windows Text Services FrameworkMUI (Multilingual User Interface

Pack for Windows)


National Language SupportNational Language Support

NLS provides the information that supports culturally appropriate behavior:

Sorting and casing Formatting (dates, times, currency,

numbers) Conversions (normalization, character

encodings) Other (calendars, native digits)


National Language Support, cont.National Language Support, cont.

NLS data for a particular culture grouped into a locale (generally, a country + language combination).

There were different types of “locales” on Windows 2000, which have been renamed for Windows XP (as seen in Regional Options)…


LocalesLocales

Windows 2000“User locale” (cultural conventions and

data)

“Input locale”(keyboards and IMEs)

“System locale”(code page conversions)

Windows XP“Standards and

Formats”

“Input Language and Method”

“Language for non-Unicode Programs”


Uniscribe Uniscribe

The technology used to handle the layout, rendering and editing of complex scripts


Examples of Complex ScriptsExamples of Complex Scripts


Some of the text issues Some of the text issues handled by Uniscribehandled by Uniscribe

Word breaking (Thai)Bi-directional text (Hebrew, Arabic)Multiple diacritics on a base

character (Vietnamese)Contextual shaping (Indic, Arabic)Illegal character combination

filtering (Thai)


Windows Text Services Windows Text Services FrameworkFramework

New to Windows XP!Extends input methods to include

natural language recognition (speech, handwriting)


MUIMUI

Short for Multilingual User InterfaceMUI changes language of the

system’s menus, dialogs and Help files into one of 24 different languages

Available as add-on pack for Windows XP Professional (Multilingual User Interface Pack)


MUI, continuedMUI, continued

MUI built by copying resources from localized versions

Testers check for same issues as for localized versions

Resource loader checks user’s UI language setting to load the appropriate resources


MUI vs. other international MUI vs. other international functionalityfunctionality

MUI– changes the user’s UI language– only available as an add-on pack to the

English version of Windows XP

All other international functionality– impacts language content and

formatting– available on all versions of Windows XP


What’s new for Windows XP?What’s new for Windows XP?


NLSNLS9 new locales + invariant locale;

136 locales total– Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Kyrgyz,

Mongolian (Cyrillic), Galician, Divehi and Syriac

Old Hangul sortingGB18030 encodingNew location (“Geo”) APIs Overhaul of Regional Options


Regional OptionsRegional Options


UniscribeUniscribe

New script support – Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Telugu,

Divehi, and Syriac Improvements to resolution, layout and

formatting made possible by GDI+ Default system installation of Uniscribe Improved font fallback support


MUIMUI

Closer parity to 100% localized builds:– UI strings removed from registry and

kernel– Improvements to Shell, Desktop and

Console resource handling– Help files enabled for UI language

switching


If you take away just one thing If you take away just one thing from this talk…from this talk…

As a result of pervasive Unicode support built into Windows XP, international functionality (except MUI) is available on all versions

This includes: Localized versions MUI version Base (English) version


What’s beyond Windows XP?What’s beyond Windows XP?


Looking to the future…Looking to the future…

New research for languages and cultures

Marry MUI and localization?Eventual goal: “English is just

another language”


ResourcesResources

Windows Global Development Website

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/mailto:[email protected] (Global Dev Help)mailto:[email protected] (Dr. International)

Microsoft Typography Website (OpenType, Uniscribe)

http://www.microsoft.com/typography


Other Related Talks at IUC 18Other Related Talks at IUC 18

(later today) Kaplan, Surrogate Support on MS

Products Hall, MUI on Windows 2000

(proceedings to earlier presentations) Pratley, Unicode in Office XP Kaplan, Unicode and SQL Collation


Well, what about us Win9x fans?Well, what about us Win9x fans?

Gee, not everyone can go out and buy Windows XP tomorrow…

Some of us have a customer base on Windows 95/98/ME…

We’d love to be able to write Unicode apps, but we have to run on both NT and Win9x…


Microsoft Layer for Unicode Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/ME on Windows 95/98/ME

Systems (Systems (MSLU)MSLU)

Goals: extend the NT set of Unicode APIs to the

Windows 95/98/ME platforms provide a means for customers to

reasonably compile Unicode versions of their applications

further promote the use of Unicode


Why MSLU?Why MSLU?

Too much need for single binary on NT and Win9x platforms

Cannot fully leverage Unicode without some support mechanism on down-level Win9x platforms

MS needed to provide a solution that is included in the Platform SDK

Documents

26 April 2001 Unicode and Windows XP, IUC 18 (Hong Kong) Unicode and Windows XP Cathy Wissink Program Manager, Globalization Windows Division Microsoft