Project list..

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

Here's a list of projects that we foresee thus far.

The order does NOT necessarily denote priority - it follows
a more foundational flow (fonts come before GUI, etc).

We'd like to hear comments/suggestions/approaches/etc as well
as identify people's interests (ie. which project they'd like
to contribute to) upon which time we'll take the technical
details to 'developer at arabeyes dot org' (subscribe if you're
interested).

Please comment...

Thank you.

 - Nadim

--------
Projects
--------

   (note: [CORE] denotes items that ought to be packaged as
          "core" code (modular design) due to the high
          probability of code-reuse)

 1. fonts, fonts and more fonts [CORE]
    a. ISO8859-6 is worthless so what next - since there is
       no standard for defining where glyphs ought to go
       (encoding), should we define our own ? Roll a 10464 ?
    b. fixed-width vs. variable ?
    c. tools to modify fonts (format, width, etc)
       - GNU Font Editor	(www.gnu.org/software/gfe)
       - xmbdfed		(crl.NMSU.Edu/~mleisher)
       - pcf2bdf		(crl.NMSU.Edu/~mleisher)
       - ttf2bdf		(www.freetype.org)
       - pfaedit		(pfaedit.sourceforge.net)
       - what else ??
    d. create what's missing (fonts, glyphs, tools)
    e. Chahine's mysterious position-agnostic fonts (gimme .bdf)
    f. what's a standard Arabic keyboard map (ONE only) ?
    g. verify usability with multibyte xterm (recent release)
    h. preach consistency - langbox, font-developers, etc.

 2. CP-1256 issues
    a. need fonts (display pure-text files written in micro$oft)
    b. other issues ?

 3. xterm
    a. document bidi & multi-byte support (FAQ)
    b. need shaping code [CORE]
       - note work on www.wholehog.fsnet.co.uk/robert/xterm

 4. Al-Katib (linux.sa.org)
    a. what's left to be done
    b. release date ?

 5. Akka
    a. release date ? (number releases even if beta - 1.2, 1.51)
    b. RedHat fixes [CORE]
    c. autoconf [CORE]
    d. package properly
    e. using general "standard" .bdf fonts (item-1 above)

 6. VIM-6 (www.vim.org)
    a. need appropriate "standard" fonts (item-1 above)
    b. need shaping code

 7. StarOffice (www.staroffice.com && www.sun.com/staroffice)
    a. fonts used ?
    b. status ?

 8. Micro$oft Word clone (www.wvware.com)
    a. fonts again
    b. bidi support [CORE]
    c. shaping code
    d. documentation

 9. aspell (aspell.sourceforge.net)
    a. establish contact with maintainer for direction
    b. create database of all arabic words (something faster)

10. mailing tool (mutt/pine/?)
    a. look at hebrew port of pine for hints
       (Adrian Penisoara - pine at freebsd dot ady dot ro)
    b. establish contact with mutt maintainer(s)

11. Chahine's bidi algorithm
    a. proof of concept
       - extend fribidi to include new proposal

12. ArabTex (www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/bs/research/arab_e.html)
    a. fonts again

13. KDE (www.kde.org)
    a. status on Arabization effort
    b. push for completeness pre KDE-3.0
    c. contact KBabel's author for help/direction
 
14. Gnome (www.gnome.org)
    a. establish contact with maintainer(s)

15. Mozilla (www.mozilla.org)
    a. Arabic shaping-code has finally be rolled-in :-)
    b. fonts issue
    c. testing status ? plan ?


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