Extending T EX for Unicode
Richard J. Kinch · 1996
T E X began its \childhood with 7-bit-encoded fonts, and has entered adolescence with 8-bit encodings such as the Cork standard. Adulthood will require T E X to embrace 16-bit encoding standards such as Unicode. Omega has debuted as a well-designed extension of the TEX formatter to accommodate Unicode, but much new work remains to extend the fonts and DVI translation that make up the bulk of a complete TEX implementation. Far more than simply doubling the width of some variables, such an extension implies a massive reorganization of many components of TEX. We describe the many areas of development needed to bring TEX fully into multi-byte encoding. To describ e and illustrate these areas, we introduce the TrueTEX r ° Unicode edition, which implements many of the extensions using the Windows Graphics Device Interface and TrueType scalable font technology.