[NTG-context] unicode and out-of-box usability

[Adam Lindsay]

Hi, folks,

I've been struggling through, trying to learn Unicode in ConTeXt. It's
been instructive, at least. (Hope to make a MyWay about it...)
There are a few weird things that made it difficult to learn, and I was
wondering if someone could help explain why things are the way they are.

In unic-ini:
\chardef\utfunihashmode=0 % 1 = enabled 

Actually, if I understand things correctly, '1' means "disabled", which
is what I preferred, having not yet created any unicode vectors. So the
internal documentation there seems wrong, and I would argue the default
case (0) makes it harder for beginners.


More confusingly, in font-uni:
\def\enableunicodefont#1%
  {\definefontsynonym[\s!Unicode][\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!file}]%
   \def\unicodescale             {\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!schaal}}%
   \def\unicodeheight            {\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!hoogte}}%
   \def\unicodedepth             {\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!diepte}}%
   \def\unicodedigits            {\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!conversie}}%
   \def\handleunicodeglyph       {\getvalue{\??uc#1\c!commando}}%
%%%%%%%%%%% NEXT LINE
   \enableregime[unicode]% the following \relax's are realy needed
   \doifvalue{\??uc#1\c!interlinie}\v!ja\setupinterlinespace\relax
   \getvalue{\??uc#1\c!commandos}\relax}

The \enableregime[unicode] runs in direct opposition with the
\enableregime[utf] that normally goes at the start of (some of my)
documents. As it stands, with the regime hard-coded, users have to put an
\enableregime[utf] *after* the font declaration. That's awkward.


The last proposed change/complaint is back in unic-ini, and came from my
attempts to match the main body font with the unicode font. 

\def\utfunifontglyph#1%
  {\xdef\unidiv{\number\utfdiv{#1}}%
   \xdef\unimod{\number\utfmod{#1}}%
   \ifnum#1<\utf@i
%%%% \unicodeasciicharacter\unimod
     \char\unimod % \unicodeascii\unimod
   \else\ifcsname\@@univector\unidiv\endcsname
     \csname\doutfunihash{\unidiv}{#1}\endcsname
   \else % so, these can be different fonts !
     \unicodeglyph\unidiv\unimod % no \uchar (yet)
   \fi\fi}

Basically, I'd like to use the \unicodeasciicharacter hook with this
definition:

\def\unicodeasciicharacter{\uchar{0}}

(I'm not certain the above is release-quality code, but I've been testing
it with a stripped down \utfunifontglyph that should be functionally
equivalent.)

Working with the unicode code makes me appreciate that it's really
powerful part of ConTeXt. Thanks, Hans!

gelukkig nieuwjaar,
adam
-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Adam T. Lindsay                      atl@comp.lancs.ac.uk
 Computing Dept, Lancaster University   +44(0)1524/594.537
 Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK             Fax:+44(0)1524/593.608
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