NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/comp/sys/mac/system/11071

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-18 | 11.1 KB

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From: jerry@planck (Gerald Siek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: System 7.1 - an overview
Keywords: system 7.1
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 18 Aug 92 11:37:45 GMT
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Hello networld,

Here's a short summary of the new features and enhancements of system
software 7.1.   The text is quoted from the introduction document  on
the 7.1 beta release CD.

Regards,
    Jerry
--
  Gerald Siek  -  [e-mail]  -  University of Paderborn, Germany


------------------------------   cut here   ----------------------------

Overview
--------
Release 7.1 is Apple's first World-Ready reference version of System
Software, intended to be ready to localize for all International
versions. The core system has been enhanced to provide required
international features, modular CPU support, improved printer
performance and bug fixes to enable straightforward localization.

All international script systems have been consolidated into two
compatible script system extensions which enables multi-script
support. A set of new managers were added to improve text input for
East Asian scripts, along with script specific Input Methods that use
these new features.  System level font support was enhanced to improve
the user interface and to support large East Asian TrueType fonts.
TrueType fonts for Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese are included within
this special development release.


Core System Enhancements
------------------------
Release 7.1 is built on top of the most recent System 7.0.x release
with 7.0 Tuneup installed and has a goal of maintaining relative speed
and size while adding international functionality.


7.0 Bugs
--------
Bug fixes, other than those which prevent localization, have been held
to a minimum. Many localizability bug fixes made to recent
International versions of System Software, such as Arabic 7.0.1 and
KanjiTalk 6.2 will be rolled into Release 7.1 .


System Enablers
---------------
Up to now, system software was tied very closely with the particular
Macintosh CPUs that it supported. New CPUs required new system
software releases. This resulted in frequent and concurrently
supported systems which confused our users. It also complicated
Apple's development process and burdened developers with a large
matrix of hardware/software combinations to test and support.

Release 7.1 minimizes this situation with a mechanism called System
Enablers that can override system resources at boot time to make
existing system software compatible with new CPUs.

This will allow Apple to reduce the amount of effort needed to support
new CPUs by simplifying testing. For developers and users, it reduces
the number of current configurations down to the latest system
software plus the latest System Enablers for your Macintosh, if any.


Extended Font Manager
---------------------
Enhancements have been made to the 7.0 Font Manager to allow for large
fonts (double-byte scripts) within reasonable performance criteria.
Many features of the Extended Font Manager were developed as part of
KanjiTalk 6.2, which introduced Kanji TrueType. These features have
been rolled into the core system.


New Fonts Folder
----------------
The Fonts Folder is a new special folder located within the System
Folder, similar to the Apple Menu Items, Control Panels, Extensions,
and Preferences folders. The Fonts Folder provides a common place for
all bitmapped, TrueType, and Adobe Type 1 fonts to reside. Font
suitcases containing several fonts can also be placed in this folder.
During the startup process, up to 128 files containing bitmapped and
TrueType fonts located within the Fonts Folder are opened by the
System and made available for use.

The LaserWriter driver has been changed to search for downloadable
fonts in the Fonts Folder. To facilitate this search, a new special
folder type, 'font', has been added to the list of folders that
FindFolder() can locate. Additionally, the background spooler has been
changed so that it no longer copies fonts into the spool document if
the font is located in the Fonts Folder.


International Control Panels
----------------------------
The International Control Panel has been replaced with the Date &
Time, Numbers, and Text control panels. The Text control panel was
introduced with the Arabic and Hebrew 7.0.1 systems. These 3 Control
Panel Devices give users more control over localizable features such
as currency symbol, sort order and date and time formats.

With Release 7.1 , there may be several scripts installed in a system,
and users may select among them for input using the keyboard menu.
However, one of these scripts is designated the system script or
primary script. This is the initial input script when the system is
first booted, and is the script that is used for text display when no
font or script is explicitly associated with text-in dialogs and
alerts, for example. The system script also specifies the resources
that determine the system's formats, for example, the formats for time
and date display.

With each localized version of the system, Apple supplies an
appropriate set of non-U.S. format resources (in addition to the U.S.
set, which is always included) that specify measurement unit, and
date, time, number and currency formats. Each of these resources has a
name that corresponds to the localized version, so that there is a
U.S. set, a French set, a Japanese set, etc. Developers and users may
also supply their own format resources, which can be distinguished by
their names (in addition to their ID numbers). An 'itlb' resource for
each script specifies the default format resources for that script.
These default format resources may belong to different localized
versions of the script system and do not need to correspond to a
single localized system.


Text Services Manager
---------------------
The Text Services Manager is system software that manages, catalogs,
and provides access to software modules that provide a service for
inputting text. The Text Services Manager provides a means for
applications on the Macintosh to search for input methods, find
information about those input methods, and communicate directly with
those services.

To paraphrase: The Text Services manager provides a database service
that classifies software objects designed to process text in some
manner by function. This service is especially useful for script
systems such as Japanese which has complicated text input. Apple
Events and the Component Manager, which was added to the core system,
are used to communicate between the different processes.


Dictionary Manager
------------------
The dictionary manager provides a standard API to access shared user
dictionaries. For double-byte input methods, it enables users to
freely switch between input methods without losing the information
that they keep in their dictionaries.
See the new Dictionary Manager chapter of Inside Mac for more details.


WorldScript I (tm)
------------------
Simple script systems (Roman and Cyrillic) remain compatible with the
base system.  Bidirectional and contextual script extensions (Arabic,
Hebrew, Greek and Thai) have been consolidated and standardized to use
a new common extension called WorldScript I.  Its advantages include a
consistent simplified user interface, a smaller memory footprint, less
bugs, easier testing and simplified installation.

All script specific behavior is defined by tables in script resources,
which are processed by common code routines in the WorldScript I
extension. New support for contextual formatting is now used for
handling Arabic, Hebrew and Thai scripts.

Install by dragging the script bundle (itlb, itl0-5, and keyboard
resources), at least one font from that script, and the WorldScript I
extension onto the System Folder icon. This will place the files in
the correct locations - fonts : Font Folder, keyboard resources and
script bundle : System File, WorldScript I extension : Extensions
Folder. Some scripts may have an optional control panel, which belongs
in the Control Panels Folder.

The System Script (also called the Prime Script, Primary Script) is
determined by the 'itlc' resource and can be set with ResEdit or
ScriptSwitcher.


WorldScript II (tm)
-------------------
There are four double-byte script systems: Traditional Chinese,
Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. System 7.0 was not
compatible with these script systems, so Release 7.1 will be the first
to make all the System 7.0 features available worldwide.

All of the double-byte script extensions have been consolidated into
the WorldScript II extension. All of the advantages and features of
the WorldScript I extension are also true with the WorldScript II
extension. In addition, there are extensions to provide backwards
compatibility with 6.x fonts, Japanese input methods and the new Text
Services Manager.

The Service Window Manager (SWM), provides support for non-TSM-aware
applications. It provides a floating bottom line window that the
active input method can use to let the user input double-byte
characters. It is included as part of the WorldScript II extension.


InputBackSupport
----------------
System 6.0 Double-Byte systems provided an extremely flexible support
mechanism for very large Han-based fonts. This mechanism was based on
files of type 'fbit' which contained font data. This data was accessed
by standalone code blocks called 'FDEF's. FBIT/FDEF fonts were
supported by code in the Script Inits. This support code involved a
special dispatch mechanism for calling FDEF's and requesting font
data, a group of patches to QuickDraw and Font Manager routines, and a
number of utility routines that FDEF's would call.

The WorldScript II extension no longer supports the FDEF/FBIT
mechanism. But in order to support FDEF/FBIT fonts that customers have
purchased, the InputBackSupport extension was created to support these
fonts. This extension exists only for backwards compatibility. No new
features have been added.

There are two areas where support previously available was dropped.
The code that searched for 'fbit' files was trimmed down to only scan
the system folder. This code previously scanned every mounted volume.
Secondly, there is no support for editing Gaiji (user defined)
characters in this extension. InputBackSupport includes the FDEF code
that is necessary to support the Apple supported fbit file formats.

InputBackSupport also provides backwards compatilibity with Japanese
6.x input methods. New Text Services Manager compatible input methods
for Japanese and Korean have been developed as part of the Release 7.1
project.


Fonts
-----
Fonts can be found with the other script resources and are installed into
the Font Folder by drag-dropping them onto the System Folder icon.
There is now support for contextual, bidirectional and double byte
fonts.


Localization
------------
Localized versions of Release 7.1 are already in progress to insure the timely
and smooth release of the international versions. There is a Japanese
localized Release 7.1 included for testing.