[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > This raises a question in my mind: how is an app to know whether the layout > engine+font are smart enough? ... > In other words, it seems to me that it must be agreed that an > app should assume it is handled by Uniscribe/OT, or should assume that it > is not.
Yes, I think this is it. If you are on Windows or MacOS (or X/KDE/gnome), or you are using a web UI (browser), then you assume that the layout engine is "smart". If it's not smart enough, complain :-) If you have an application on a mainframe that writes to a 3270 or 5250, then you assume that the layout it "dumb". "Dumb" is probably also a good assumption for command-line tools on Unixes, although in theory their output could be piped into a file and displayed with a browser. markus
