Tag: encoding

Converting between XKB and XML

I completed the stage that takes keyboard layout files from XKB (X.Org) and converts them to XML documents, based on a keyboard layout Relax NG schema. Then, these XML documents can also be converted back to keyboard layout files. Here is an imaginary example of a keyboard layout file. // Keyboard layout for the Zzurope …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/converting-between-xkb-and-xml/

Should UI strings in source code have non-ASCII characters?

There is a discussion going on at desktop-devel about whether the UI strings in the source code should also have non-ASCII characters. For example, should typical strings with double-quotes have those fancy Unicode double quotes? printf(_(“Could not find file “%s”n”)); instead of printf(_(“Could not find file “%s”n”)); The general view from the replies is to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/should-ui-strings-in-source-code-have-non-ascii-characters/

Localisation issues in home directory folders (xdg-user-dirs)

In new distributions such as Ubuntu 7.10 there is now support for folder names of personal data in your local language. What this means is that ~/Desktop can now be called ~/Επιφάνεια εργασίας. You also get a few more default folders, including ~/Music, ~/Documents, ~/Pictures and so on. This functionality of localised home folders has …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/localisation-issues-in-home-directory-folders-xdg-user-dirs/

Convert your legacy font to Unicode

There exist quite a few legacy fonts, from the time that 8-bit-style encodings was the norm. Nowdays, most (if not all) spoken and ancient scripts have been added to the Unicode standard. Therefore, if you have a legacy font, you can convert to Unicode using a guide by William J Poser. The guide uses Linear …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/convert-your-legacy-font-to-unicode/

Creating a new locale on the OLPC

When you run the OLPC software you currently have access only to the English locales. If you want to enable Greek support, you need to run (as root) localedef -v -c -i /usr/share/i18n/locales/el_GR -f UTF-8 /usr/lib/locale/el_GR/ localedef -v -c -i /usr/share/i18n/locales/el_GR -f UTF-8 /usr/lib/locale/el_GR.utf8/ You will get a bunch of warnings. You can ignore them …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/creating-a-new-locale-on-the-olpc/

Multimedia support in Ubuntu Linux 6.06

With Ubuntu Linux 6.06, it is much clear how to install those codecs in order to get broad multimedia file support. In Ubuntu, the multimedia infrastructure is handled by GStreamer; you install GStreamer plugins and any application that uses GStreamer can immediately benefit from the new codec support. A typical installation of Ubuntu will bring …

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Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/multimedia-support-in-ubuntu-linux-606/