[webkit-dev] Safari and complex script rendering

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Sep 28, 2008, at 1:15 AM, Paul Pedriana wrote:

>>> ... this is not a WebCore issue, so there is nothing you can do
> in WebCore to fix it.
>
> When I look at WebCore's WidthIterator::advance function, it doesn't
> seem to me to be savvy to complex script. It looks to me like it walks
> through a Unicode string and replaces character clusters with  
> individual
> glyphs. This approach works for most scripts but not complex scripts
> such as Arabic and Devanagari. The problem, as you may well be  
> aware, is
> that there are many OpenType-directed substitutions, ligations, and
> "un-ligations." This is unrelated to Arabic's RTL nature unrelated to
> simply contextual alternates resulting from cursiveness. It seems to  
> me
> that complex script would have to be supported by something other than
> WidthIterator::advance (is it?).
>
> If WebCore (or WebKit in general) supports complex script correctly  
> then
> I wonder what I am missing regarding the above statements.

WebKit on Mac and Windows (and perhaps other ports, haven't tested)  
supports complex scripts such as Arabic. But not (currently) the  
iPhone port.

Regards,
Maciej