Re: About the zh_CN.GB2312 locale

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Fri, 24 May 2002, Zhang Lin-bo wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to dia and I'm pretty interested in
> using it, especially to draw diagrams with Chinese
> characters. Thus I downloaded the cvs snapshot of 20020509
> (may 9 2002), compiled it on a rh7.3 system, and tried
> to create a diagram containing Chinese characters.
> Here are some observations based on my experience:
> 
> o Environment: redhat-7.3, locale: zh_CN.GB2312, XFree86 4.1.0
>   (the Chinese input server xcin does not work with the
>   XFree86-4.2.0 of rh7.3).
> 
> o Configure options: --prefix=/usr --enable-unicode --enable-gnome-print
>   (I got segfault with "--enable-freetype" with a certain diagram,
>    and compilation fails with "--enable-gnome" because some
>    function "gnome_set_sensitivity(?)" is missing).

Too bad with the segfault with freetype, could you send the diagram that
provokes it (to me personally if it is sensitive, I can't read Chinese:).
The Gnome thing should be ok in the newest CVS.

> o Chinese input works. Chinese characters can be correctly displayed
>   by selecting one of the two Chinese GB fonts: BousungEG-Light-GB
>   and GBZenKai-Medium
> 
> o Export to png works, but export and print to PostScript do not work
>   (the Chinese characters are simply missing). Another remark: it may
>   be a good idea to create postscript files with in-document (vector or
>   bitmap) fonts for chinese characters, such documents are perfectly
>   portable.

The problem for this is that in the X setup, the font outlines are not
available to programs, only bitmaps, so we can't include them (except in
Freetype, but see above).  You will need to have the fonts in question
installed for the PS viewer-printer in question.  If you do, I predict the
characters will show up.

> o Export to TeX works, but the Chinese characters are in utf-8 encoding
>   (it is desirable that conversion be done by dia according to current
>   locale when exporting).

Probably true, though I am no Chinese TeX expert.  Can you point to info
about Chinese TeX, so we can do it the Right Way?

-Lars
-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?