WorldScript: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:56, 11 October 2006

Revision as of 15:05, 25 April 2007

Line 1:

'''WorldScript''' was the multilingual text rendering engine for [[Apple Macintosh]] before [[Mac OS X]] was introduced.

Starting with version 7.1, Apple unified the implementation of non-romanRoman script systems in a programming interface called WorldScript. WorldScript I was used for all one-byte character sets and WorldScript II for two-byte sets. Support for new script systems was added by so-called Language Kits. Some kits were provided with the system software, and others were sold by Apple and third parties. Application support for WorldScript was not universal, since support was a significant task. Good international support gave a marketing edge to word-processing programs such as [[Nisus Writer]] and programs using the [[WASTE text engine|WASTE]] [[text engine]], since [[Microsoft Word]] was not WorldScript aware.

In 8.5, full [[Unicode]] support was added to Mac OS through an [[Application programming interface|API]] called [[ATSUI]]. However, WorldScript remained the dominant technology for international text until Mac OS X, because of limited application support for ATSUI.