OpenSource Approaches to Unicode Enablement

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Open-Source Approaches to Unicode Enablement

• Panel Discussion

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Agenda

• Panel Introductions
• Library Descriptions and Demos
• What is Open Source?
• What is the Open Source experience?
• Q and A

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Todays Panel

• Frank Tang
• Helena Shih
• Ulrich Drepper
• Tex Texin

• Netscape
• ICU
• glibc
• Moderator

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(No Transcript)
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Library Descriptions and Demos

• GNU libc
• http//sourceware.cygnus.com/glibc
• Mozilla International Library of Mozilla
• http//www.mozilla.org/projects/intl
• IBM International Components for Unicode
• http//oss.software.ibm.com/icu

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International Library for Mozilla

• Frank Tang
• Netscape Communications
• Mozilla

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GNU Libc

• Ulrich Drepper
• GNU, RedHat

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GNU libc

• Library supporting multibyte and wide characters
• localedef tool allows definition of locales for
  any charsets, including UTF8, UCS2
• using charset requires just a description and a
  conversion module
• Wide character is UCS-4, native byte order

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GNU libc conversion functions

• iconv() implementation is unique
• Conversions are transitive
• A to C A to B to C
• In most cases, UCS-4 is used as common denominator

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Licensing Development Process

• RedHat is completely open source.
• Code is licensed as LGPL, assigned to Free
  Software Foundation (FSF)
• This is the same method as GNU
• Small teams of developers with a dictatorial
  decision maker.
• Comments accepted, taken into account
• Extensive peer reviewing

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International Components for Unicode (ICU)

• Helena Shih
• IBM Unicode Technology Center

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Unicode support in the Industry

• Lack of a complete set of features in most
  implementations.
• Inconsistent across different environments.
  Win32 vs. POSIX, for example.
• Poor portability.
• Unable to share the resources with other
  products.
• Almost no extensibility and customization.
• Not a concern for most companies when a product
  is first designed.

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Apple G3 Macintosh
ICU
IBMs DB/2 Product
AS/400 e-Server 720
Microsoft NT Workstation
World Wide Web
Sun Ultra 60 Workstation
S/390 Server
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ICU Objectives

• Single release for world-wide distribution
• Quality Unicode I18N support across platforms
• Simplified development localization process
• Consistent results in both C/C and Java
• Powerful, portable API available to the
  Open-Source development community
• Important resources sharing mechanism

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ICU Features

• Parallel to the i18n architecture in JDK
• All components multi-thread safe
• Full Unicode string manipulation
• Complete locale support, e.g. 145 locales
• Fast and flexible character set conversion
• Efficient data loading mechanism

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ICU Features

• Hierarchical resource bundles with flexible data
  storage mechanism
• Extensive calendar and timezone support
• Date, time, currency, number and message
  formatting
• Locale sensitive sorting (including Thai)
• Locale sensitive text boundary detection

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ICU Features

• Customizable transliteration interface
• Unicode text compression algorithm
• Fast and compliant Unicode 3.0 Bidi algorithm
• Most up-to-date Unicode 3.0 support (including
  Normalization)
• All APIs support UTF-16
• Partnership insures balanced viewpoints and
  practical solutions

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ICU4J - ICU for Java

• IBM developed extensive I18N library
• I18N code added to Java JDK 1.1
• Java code ported to C - ICU
• ICU available on alphaWorks
• Both ICU and Java classes continue development
• Sometimes leapfrogging each other with features
• ICU open source, moves to developerWorks
• 2000 March Java Code open source as ICU4J

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ICU4J Features

• Builds on Java 2 feature set
• Feature summary
• Advanced text boundary detection
• Calendars Hebrew, Hijri/Islamic, Japanese
  Gengou, Thai Buddhist
• Spelled-out numbers
• Normalization
• Transliteration
• Standard Unicode compression

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Demos

• Locale Explorer
• glibc

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Agenda

• Panel Introductions
• Library Descriptions and Demos
• What is Open Source?
• What is the Open Source experience?
• Q and A

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ICU OpenSource Objectives

• De facto industry standard for Unicode support
• Pervasive globalization technologies
• Mature globalization technologies for customers
• Support for other important OpenSource products
  Linux, Apache, Mozilla, XML etc.

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Open-Source Models

• The Apache model
• Web access for CVS repository
• Technical committees
• Developer community support
• icu_at_oss.software.ibm.com etc. mailing lists
• Commercial product partnership
• RealNames, versant, GE ...

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Why contribute to Open Source?

• Requires robust I18n and portability
• Implementing alone, cost is considerable
• Sharing development is cost effective
• Shared knowledge with experts
• Ability to influence the end-result

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Why contribute to Open Source?

• Provide portability and interoperability
• Going to Unicode 3.0 is a sizable effort
• Commercial libraries insufficient
• Shared effort means our development focus is now
  aligned with our needs
• Share expertise, Give something
• Source access-Education, Self-reliance

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Why contribute to Open Source?

• Concerns
• Giving away proprietary technology
• Design by committee
• Will release schedules fit product schedules?
• Will library and product stay in synch?
• Do all participants have common objectives?

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Why contribute to Open Source?

• Concerns
• Management Perceptions
• If its free, it must be for play
• Entry requirements and qualifications to be able
  to affect direction or design
• Patch integration, Release control and schedules
• Build stability

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Agenda

• Panel Introductions
• Library Descriptions and Demos
• What is Open Source?
• What is the Open Source experience?
• Q and A