[#VWR-1629] Hebrew is not usable in the Viewer since 1.11/1.12 unless you have once installed at least 1.10 .

1. Second Life Viewer - VWR

Hebrew is not usable in the Viewer since 1.11/1.12 unless you have once installed at least 1.10 .

Created: 10/Jul/07 01:43 AM Updated: 06/Aug/08 11:34 AM

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Component/s:

Chat/IM, Internationalization

Affects Version/s:

1.17.0.x, 1.17.1, 1.17.3

Fix Version/s:

None

File Attachments:

Tahoma.patch (0.6 kB)

Environment:

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Windows XP SP2 Hebrew UI. Harmless Vista theme + icons, Intel Pentium D 3.4Ghz, Nvidia GeForce 7100 GS (that apparently has issues with TurboCache in VWR-1628), 512MB RAM, 160GB Hard drive, approx. 150-155GB of the 160GB is free for use.

Issue Links:

Relates

This issue Relates to:

VWR-112 Arabic language needs to be displayed right to left rather than left to right

Linden Lab Issue ID:	SL-50141
Linden Lab Internal Branch:	hebrew language font got half fixed

Description

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A long while ago, I was able to use Hebrew for chat, several LSL scripts, Notecards, and object names. Now, I cannot use it on my new PC, but I can on my old PC which once stored Second Life 1.10 . Only this time, I write in reverse, and other people with Unicode enabled on their PCs, cannot read it.

This is very surprising, as Hebrew in Wikipedia can be read by everyone and written as well if you have the keyboard language set to Hebrew. You may think this doesn't matter, well it does. We should be able to talk and display all languages, and talking in sculpted prims isn't very fun o.o . Nor is english-hebrew (e.g.: Shalom! ).

I think this can be done by Open Source developers =).

All

Comments

Change History

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Celierra Darling added a comment - 10/Jul/07 02:28 PM

Removing a few versions - selecting all of them is a bit overkill...

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Celierra Darling added a comment - 10/Jul/07 02:33 PM

Adding to meta-issue VWR-1577 per description.

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Alissa Sabre added a comment - 13/Jul/07 08:14 AM

I believe this issue is caused by a presence of a font "Arial Unicode MS" that is bundled with Microsoft Office products, and not related to SL Viewer 1.10.

Smiley, can you check the following points on both PCs?

From Windows' Start menu, choose Contorl Panel > Fonts.

In the Fonts window, see if a font of the name "Arial Unicode MS" is present.

I expect that "Arial Unicode MS" is installed on your older machine but not on your newer machine.

If it is the case, I can imagine several workarounds:

If you have a license to use a Microsoft Office product on your newer machine, you can install "Arial Unicode MS" from your install CD of Office. Run the Office installer and perform custom install. "Arial Unicode MS" should be a part of "Extra Fonts" package. Alternatively, you can look for a file "ARIALUNI.TTF" in the install CD and use Windows' Control Panel > Fonts to install it. (It may be in a .CAB file, depending on the version of the Office product. If so, you need to extract the ARIALUNI.TTF manually before install.)

If you don't have the license, or you don't want to install ARIALUNI.TTF, you can fool the SL viewer as follows: Choose your favorite Windows font file that includes Hebrew characters (say, Tahoma) in Fonts window, and copy it to the Second Life Viewer's fonts folder (That is, C:\Program Files\SecondLife\fonts, if you installed the viewer in a default location), and rename the file to "ArialUni.TTF".

Alternatively, you can apply the attached patch (Tahoma.patch) on the viewer source. (It is against the viewer source 1.18.0.6.) I'm not sure this is an ideal solution. See below.

BTW, I have a question on use of Hebrew in SL.

Hebrew is written right-to-left. I believe the current version (and all previous versions) of SL viewer can't handle right-to-left writing direction. Even though you can see each characters if you use one of the above workarounds, your Hebrew letters will appear left-to-right on the screen, so I guess it doesn't facilitate your communication in Hebrew... Or, did I miss something?

[ Show » ]

Alissa Sabre added a comment - 13/Jul/07 08:14 AM I believe this issue is caused by a presence of a font "Arial Unicode MS" that is bundled with Microsoft Office products, and not related to SL Viewer 1.10. Smiley, can you check the following points on both PCs?

From Windows' Start menu, choose Contorl Panel > Fonts.

In the Fonts window, see if a font of the name "Arial Unicode MS" is present.

I expect that "Arial Unicode MS" is installed on your older machine but not on your newer machine. If it is the case, I can imagine several workarounds:

If you have a license to use a Microsoft Office product on your newer machine, you can install "Arial Unicode MS" from your install CD of Office. Run the Office installer and perform custom install. "Arial Unicode MS" should be a part of "Extra Fonts" package. Alternatively, you can look for a file "ARIALUNI.TTF" in the install CD and use Windows' Control Panel > Fonts to install it. (It may be in a .CAB file, depending on the version of the Office product. If so, you need to extract the ARIALUNI.TTF manually before install.)

If you don't have the license, or you don't want to install ARIALUNI.TTF, you can fool the SL viewer as follows: Choose your favorite Windows font file that includes Hebrew characters (say, Tahoma) in Fonts window, and copy it to the Second Life Viewer's fonts folder (That is, C:\Program Files\SecondLife\fonts, if you installed the viewer in a default location), and rename the file to "ArialUni.TTF".

Alternatively, you can apply the attached patch (Tahoma.patch) on the viewer source. (It is against the viewer source 1.18.0.6.) I'm not sure this is an ideal solution. See below.

BTW, I have a question on use of Hebrew in SL. Hebrew is written right-to-left. I believe the current version (and all previous versions) of SL viewer can't handle right-to-left writing direction. Even though you can see each characters if you use one of the above workarounds, your Hebrew letters will appear left-to-right on the screen, so I guess it doesn't facilitate your communication in Hebrew... Or, did I miss something?

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Smiley Barry added a comment - 16/Jul/07 06:07 AM

I DO have it, and no, Second Life could format it "correctly". At least in the right order of letters. I mean, ABCD EFGSKF KRVND (in hebrew ; just an example) would appear right now as DNVRK FKSGFE DCBA to me, and as blank characters to others.

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Alissa Sabre added a comment - 28/Jul/07 08:28 PM

This issue was discussed on Internationalization Triage, 2007-07-27. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Bug_triage/2007-07-27/Transcript#VWR-1629:_Hebrew_is_not_usable_in_the_Viewer_since_1.11.2F1.12_unless_you_have_once_installed_at_least_1.10

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Jaime Linden added a comment - 05/Oct/07 02:08 PM

We understand that this is an important issue, however we're putting this on hold to prioritize other international tasks. This may be best presented to the open source community for quicker solutions.

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kurt Sanford added a comment - 08/Jul/08 09:56 AM - edited

Good news everybody !
Problem got fix, case is close, thanks to the great help of Alissa Sabre !!!
so, all u have to do is:
1. Look on your top tool bar in SL, incase that your last tool is "Help", press on Ctrl+Alt+D (only one time) and u'd get a new tool called "Advanced"
(incase u already have that, DONT press those buttons, cuz it'll make it go away)

2. After u got that tool, click on it, and click on Debug settings (should be in down the list), u'd get a new window on the lower left side of the screen

3. Drag that window to the center of the screen

4. Look at that window, it divided to two parts, all u cares about is the first part, the one above, the empty line, it got an arrow on its right side, click on it, u'll have a list

5. Pick up from the list the one that says "FontSansSerifFallback" (make sure it's NOT "FontSansSerifFallbacksacle" ! )

6. Now u need to focus on the second part of that window... u need to add to those words this one ";davidtr.ttf" with the special colon " ; " mark
also remember to add it WITH NO spaces to the last word.

i.e: if it was: MSGOTHIC.TTC;gulim.ttc;simhei.ttf;ArialUni.ttf; before.
now it should be written MSGOTHIC.TTC;gulim.ttc;simhei.ttf;ArialUni.ttf;davidtr.ttf (make sure u notice the last addition

7. This will get u the hebrew font, but SL got another problem showing the letters in reverse, so i got a a script that programed into a braclet item for your avatar to wear, so it fix that problem, and u can get it from me free no charge. (also u better take that braclet off when u want to talk english cuz that script cant tell when u talk hebrew...etc...) braclet was made by Darrly Chang all the credits to him ofcourse.

stay cool

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kurt Sanford added a comment - 08/Jul/08 10:32 AM - edited

problem got fix, case is close, thanks to the great help of Alissa Sabre !!!
so, all u have to do is:
1. Look on your top tool bar in SL, incase that your last tool is "Help", press on Ctrl+Alt+D (only one time) and u'd get a new tool called "Advanced"
(incase u already have that, DONT press those buttons, cuz it'll make it go away)

2. After u got that tool, click on it, and click on Debug settings (should be in down the list), u'd get a new window on the lower left side of the screen

3. Drag that window to the center of the screen

4. Look at that window, it divided to two parts, all u cares about is the first part, the one above, the empty line, it got an arrow on its right side, click on it, u'll have a list

5. Pick up from the list the one that says "FontSansSerifFallback" (make sure it's NOT "FontSansSerifFallbacksacle" ! )

i.e: if it was: MSGOTHIC.TTC;gulim.ttc;simhei.ttf;ArialUni.ttf; before.
now it should be written MSGOTHIC.TTC;gulim.ttc;simhei.ttf;ArialUni.ttf;davidtr.ttf (make sure u notice the last addition

stay cool

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Ramzi Linden added a comment - 06/Aug/08 11:34 AM

I am working to synchronize our internal tracking with the Public Issue tracker. Internally we have closed this bug for the foreseeable future

I notice that this bug is reported against a very old version of Second Life, and also is "half fixed" here in the Issue Tracker? If you like to update the bug behavior as of the current viewer 1.20, please feel free to do so and then reopen this issue. Thanks!