[Lazarus] How to use strings properly with fixes_1_6 and FPC 3.0.0?

[Rolf Grunsky]

On 10/22/2016 06:25 AM, Juha Manninen via Lazarus wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 22, 2016 at 4:12 AM, Martin Frb via Lazarus
> <lazarus at lists.lazarus-ide.org> wrote:
>> Which ones does it not support?
>> When I added it to SynEdit it was complete. It had all the combinings that
>> the utf8 standard had back then. (at least that I could find in the
>> documentation)
>>
>> Of course if a new combining range is added, it will not contain it. If that
>> is needed one needs an external (OS or otherwise) library, that can/will be
>> updated on those occasions.
>>
>> Mind "combining codepoints" have nothing to do with how many codepoints will
>> be represented by one glyph.
>
> Ok, I was confusing the Unicode terms again.
> I guess the biggest complexity is in glyphs and ligatures. I still
> don't understand their details.
> However for a program that must care about Unicode, like a text layout
> app, the rules for combining codepoints and glyphs are equally
> important. Codepoints for one glyph should never be split or copied
> separately. Isn't it so?
> SynEdit is a text layout app, too.
> In that sense the function IsCombining is not enough for practical
> purposes. A comprehensive library function should take care of glyphs
> (+ other rules), too.
>
> I looked at Bero's PUCU and the other links:
>  http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,33064.msg214342.html#msg214342
> but it went over my head. I must study the issue more later.
>
> * A reality check! *
> Despite problems and incompleteness of our Unicode support, it is
> actually better than most other solutions out there.
> Ok, most programming tools support Unicode somehow but people use them wrong.
> A good example is our forum SMF software. It deals with text layout
> and definitely should handle Unicode but it does not.
> Not even single Codepoints beyond BMP which should be the most easy
> case! No combining rules needed or anything.
> Try to add this text to a forum post:  (I hope the mail SW can deal with it...)
>   "Have 🍷 for FPC 💓 Lazarus."
>
> Now the fact is that code made with FPC / Lazarus using the LazUnicode
> functions and enumerators supports Unicode already much better than
> most code out there!
>
> Juha
>

I think that there is a degree of confusion about the use of ligatures. 
Ligatures (at least in English) are typographical elements, not language 
elements. Not all typefaces support them and the code for a ligature 
should never appear in the source text. It is the function of the 
display software to combine adjacent characters and display the 
appropriate ligature if and only if the font that is used supports them.

A proportional typeface may display the character sequence 'fl' by using 
the appropriate ligature glyph. A monospaced typeface would display the 
same sequence as two characters, as would any typeface that did not 
include the ligature glyphs.

Ligatures improve the appearance of text but are strictly a display 
function and shouldn't actually appear in the text itself. This may not 
be true for other writing systems and other languages but is certainly 
true for English and perhaps other western European languages as well.

-- 
                                TRUTH in her dress finds facts too tight.
                                In fiction she moves with ease.
                                Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore