[OSM-talk] fonts feature for josm and potlach

[Andrew Errington]

On Wed, November 4, 2009 22:10, �var Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 4:23 AM, Andrew Errington
> <a.errington at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, November 3, 2009 12:38, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
>>
>>> hi,
>>>
>>> apart from the supported languages, there is no way at present to see
>>>  what is entered when using, for example, Indian scripts to enter
>>> names of features in JOSM. All we can see is little boxes. I have
>>> tried out other java applications, and by selecting the correct font,
>>> I am able to see the
>>> output. If JOSM had a feature whereby one can select the font for
>>> input, it would be a great help.
>> <snip>
>>
>>
>> It sounds like there is something not quite right on your machine, or
>> perhaps the way Java is set up. Â I run JOSM on Linux and I have Korean
>> fonts and a Korean text input method. Â I can view Korean strings, and
>> enter and edit them with no problem whatsoever. Â I can enter English
>> and Korean on the same line, even.
>>
>>
>> I suggest you look at what fonts you have installed. Â Clearly you have
>> one that includes Indian characters. Â Perhaps JOSM's font selector is
>> using a font that does not have Indian characters.
>
> Yes, this is clearly a problem with Kenneth Gonsalves's computer and
> not with any of the software mentioned. I can use Potlatch, JOSM and the
> OSM website just fine with languages like Japanase, Korean and
> Telugu.
>

It's not quite as simple as that.  Here I have two computers.  One running
Korean Windows XP, the other running Linux.  On the XP machine the Indian
names are properly rendered as text in Firefox when viewing the data layer
at OSM.  Potlatch will also show Indian script for the tags of selected
objects, and I can cut and paste Indian text to a new tag (I can't type
it, because I don't have an Indian input method).  JOSM however will not
display Indian text in the vector area, nor for object tags or in the
input boxes.

On the Linux machine, Indian tags are rendered properly in my browser when
viewing the data layer, but neither Potlatch or JOSM will display them
properly.  Potlatch shows dots for each Indian character, JOSM shows
squares.

What is needed IMHO is a description of *how* JOSM and Potlatch renders
other languages, so that an individual can set up their own machine with
the correct fonts and settings to make it work.  It's all very well to say
"It works for me" (as I did with my Korean anecdotal evidence), but
without knowing *why* it works we can't say why it doesn't work for
someone else.

Best wishes,

Andrew