[Fontconfig] asian font configuration

[John Thacker]

On Sun, Dec 12, 2004 at 08:39:20PM -0800, Keith Packard wrote:
> 
> Around 10 o'clock on Dec 13, Tor Andersson wrote:
> 
> > 8822 hangul syllables in unicode are missing from KS X 1001, and most
> > of the fonts miss them too. about 5000 chinese characters are also in
> > the old ko.orth that are missing from a lot of korean fonts.
> 
> It almost seems like we should preserve the KSC 5601-1992 orthography 
> somehow; is there a territorial difference where the Han glyphs are used 
> in one area and not in another?  Or is it that Han is just slowly leaving 
> the "normal" Korean language and that fontconfig should respect that 
> change?

Well, in the DPRK Han glyphs (Hanja) haven't been used at all officially
since 1949.  In the ROK their use has definitely been steadily decreasing
as well.  I've heard that learning all the standard set is no longer 
mandatory in high schools, for example.  There are occasions where they
are used still, though.

According to most things I've seen (e.g., http://jshin.net/faq/qa8.html )
KS C 5601-1992 is the same as KS X 1001:1992, there was merely a change
in format and number scheme made in August 1997.  The "extra" 8822 
precomposed hangul syllables are NOT an official part of the standard, but
there is a provision on how to represent them in the document.  The later
KS C 5700 / KS X 1005-1 does include them, however.

Yet, since so many Korean fonts are based on KS X 1001 / KS C 5601, it's 
reasonable to follow it and not include the extra precomposed syllables, 
and restrict to only the Hangul syllables in the list Tor provided.  
However, the 4882 Hanja are definitely part of the standard no matter 
what.  I'm somewhat surprised that so many fonts would not have them at all,
but it certainly must be easier.  (Just as it's easier to not include
accented characters in fonts designed for English.)

John Thacker
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