Observations on Unicode, RunRev and Operating Systems

[Scott Rossi]

Recently, Richmond wrote:

> If one opens a Unicode font with a font development program what the
> user sees are lots and lots of glyphs; what most people don't see are
> all sorts of
> rules as to how they should behave when the end-user types something
> using that
> font, possibly also using a text-encoding algorithm built into their
> operating system.
> 
> Why should we care?
> 
> Because, while Windows Vista and '7', and Linux works wonderfully with
> Unicode
> fonts giving those rules cognisance, Mac OS and Windows XP don't . . .

What do you mean "all sorts of rules as to how they should behave"?  Kerning
pairs?  Ligatures?  Multi-key characters?  Something else?

If you're really talking about Mac OS (pre OS X), I wouldn't be surprised.
AFAIK, Unicode was only in its infancy when Mac OS was around, and general
adoption probably took a while.  By then, OS X was coming on the scene, so
presumably most/all development efforts were shifted to that OS.

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX Design