Re: unicode char ranges

[Coda Highland <chighland@...>]

On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 2:03 PM, David Given <dg@cowlark.com> wrote:
> On 06/12/12 19:22, Jay Carlson wrote:
>> On Dec 6, 2012, at 12:12 AM, Dirk Laurie wrote:
> [...]
>>> You're the second poster to make snide remarks at my OS.
> [...]
>> To be clear, I'm self-deprecatingly placing myself in the role of "one of those condescending Unix users!" in the Dilbert strip.
>
> For reference: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-06-24/
>
> (Good grief. 1995!)
>
> Incidentally, what *is* the OS in question? The reason I ask is that I
> was under the impression there were only four main Unicode renderers in
> current use --- Windows' one, OSX's one, KDE's one, and Pango, which is
> the one used by pretty much everything else. Is there a fifth?

Strangely enough, you actually only listed three -- KDE uses Qt's font
rendering, which is based on Harfbuzz... but recent versions of Pango
are ALSO based on Harfbuzz.

That said, Harfbuzz is only a layout engine, not a full renderer --
you have to pair it with e.g. FreeType to get actual text rendering,
and LOTS of apps still use FreeType directly without bringing Harfbuzz
into the picture.

/s/ Adam