Thai(5)Thai(5)NAME
Thai, thai - Introduction to Thai language support
DESCRIPTION
TIS 620-2533 is the Thai national standard that defines a primary set
of graphic characters for information interchange. The operating system
supports this standard with coded character set (codeset), locale,
device, and other kinds of system files.
Codesets
The operating system supports the following codesets for Thai by means
of locales, codeset converters, or both. The string that represents
this codeset in names of locales and codeset converters is TACTIS. See
TACTIS(5) for more information. The strings that represent these
encoding formats in the names of locales and codeset converters are
UTF-16, UCS-4, and UTF-8. See Unicode(5) for more information. The
string that represents this encoding format in the names of codeset
converters is cp874. See code_page(5) for more information.
Note
Character encoding in UTF-16, UCS-4, and UTF-8 formats is identical to
character encoding in the TACTIS codeset. Therefore, you can use data
converted from cp874 format to UTF-16, UCS-4, or UTF-8 when the locale
setting is th_TH.TACTIS.
See i18n_intro(5) and l10n_intro(5) for introductory information on
codesets. See iconv_intro(5) for a discussion of codeset converters and
how to use them.
Locales
The operating system supports the following Thai locales for Thailand:
th_TH.TACTIS
Applications can use the th_TH.TACTIS@ucs4 variant of this
locale if they need to convert file data in TACTIS format to
UCS-4 process code to perform certain character-classification
operations.
You can use the locale command (see locale(1)) to display the names of
locales installed on your system. See i18n_intro(5) for information on
setting a locale from the operating system command line.
In the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), you need to set a locale by
setting the session language. To do this, from the Options menu of the
Login window, choose Language. Then, from the Language options menu,
choose a session language.
Input Devices, Servers, and Methods
The operating system supports one Thai terminal, the VT382-T.
The operating system supports the LK471, LK97W, and PCXAL keyboards for
the Thai language. Thai characters are printed on the keys of the fol‐
lowing models:
LK471-CB
LK97W-CB
PCXAL-T
There are several methods used to input Thai characters. The following
list briefly describes both Thai input methods and the way English
characters are entered on Thai keyboards: Thai Character Input
Non-graphic Thai characters and English characters map to the
same set of keys. When input mode is set to on, users can enter
the Thai characters. When input mode is set to off, users can
enter English characters. Hex Input
Thai characters are entered by typing their hexadecimal code
values. Special Thai Character Input
Graphic characters defined in the TIS 620-2533 standard map to
certain keys on Thai keyboards and these characters are entered
by pressing those keys.
For the VT382-T terminal, Thai input mode is provided by terminal
firmware.
In a Motif environment such as CDE, Thai input methods do not require
an input server to be running. However, if your system default keyboard
is not a Thai keyboard, you must load a Thai keymap before starting an
application window. See keyboard(5) for more information about setting
and using keyboards. The following tables supply Thai-specific informa‐
tion that you need when loading keymaps.
Selecting keymaps in xkb format:
────────────────────────────────
For PC-Style
Keyboard: Select:
────────────────────────────────
LK471-CB lk471cb or lk471
LK97W-CB lk97wcb or lk97w
PCXAL-T pcxalt
PCXAL-WTT pcxalwtt
────────────────────────────────
Selecting keymaps in xmodmap format:
─────────────────────────────
For PC-Style
Keyboard: Select:
─────────────────────────────
PCXAL-T thai pcxalt
PCXAL-WTT thai pcxalwtt
─────────────────────────────
The Thai VT terminal and Motif keymaps support locking-shift mode
switching to toggle between English and Thai character input. English
characters can be entered in the Mode Switch Off state and Thai charac‐
ters in the Mode Switch On state. Use one of the following key
sequences to toggle the Mode Switch state:
For the VT382-T terminal, press Compose
For PCXAL, LK471, and LK97W keyboards, press Right Ctrl
These keys are defaults; you can change them to be other keys.
Setting Up Screen Fonts for Motif Applications
X or Motif applications require non-ASCII fonts to display Thai charac‐
ters. The font path must be set appropriately before starting an
application that displays Thai characters. An application can find Thai
fonts in either of the following directories:
/usr/i18n/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/75dpi, for low resolution display
/usr/i18n/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/100dpi, for high resolution display
For applications running under CDE, users do not need to set the font
path. In other environments, you may need to use the following command
to check the font path: % xset q
If one of the directories in the preceding list is not in the font
path, the following example shows how to add the directory. You can
substitute 100dpi for 75dpi if you want high resolution display. %
xset +fp /usr/i18n/lib/X11/decwin/75dpi/ % xset fp rehash
Printers
The operating system supports the following Thai printer. The associ‐
ated print filter is noted in parentheses following the printer name.
The Epson LQ1050+ is a 24-pin dot matrix printer.
For more information on setting up and configuring this printer and
other, generic, printers for Thai print jobs, see i18n_printing(5) and
lprsetup(8).
In the desktop publishing (DTP) environment for Thai, it is necessary
to implement above vowel and tonemark characters that are not defined
in the TIS 620-2555 standard set of graphic characters. These supple‐
mentary characters provide the text morphing that appears in printed
Thai text.
Currently, there is no standard way to implement text morphing. The
rules used by the generic PostScript print filter (wwpsof) that is sup‐
plied with the operating system are proprietary; however, the wwpsof
print filter works with the Thai fonts that are supplied with the oper‐
ating system. If your site installs Thai fonts from third-party ven‐
dors, be sure to verify printed output carefully before making the Thai
printer queue generally available.
To enable text morphing in printed output, specify the tm option on the
-A flag of the lpr command (see lpr(1)).
SEE ALSO
Commands: locale(1), lp(1), lpr(1), xset(1X), lpd(8), lprsetup(8)
Files: printcap(4)
Others: code_page(5), i18n_intro(5), i18n_printing(5), iconv_intro(5),
l10n_intro(5), TACTIS(5), Unicode(5), Wototo(5)
Writing Software for the International Market
Using International Software
Thai(5)
