lp-l10n-de team mailing list archive

[Daniel Schury <das.surst@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

** Changed in: ubuntu-translations
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu German Translators (ubuntu-l10n-de)

** Changed in: ubuntu-translations
     Assignee: Ubuntu German Translators (ubuntu-l10n-de) => Launchpad German Translators (lp-l10n-de)

** Changed in: ubuntu-translations
     Assignee: Launchpad German Translators (lp-l10n-de) => Ubuntu German Translators (ubuntu-l10n-de)

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Launchpad
German Translators, which is a bug assignee.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/750670

Title:
  incorrect ligatures in German locale

Status in Ubuntu Translations:
  New

Bug description:
  Unlike in English typography, in German typography ligatures are not
  always allowed. Ligatures across internal word boundaries are
  disallowed (see the section "Richtlinien für den Schriftsatz" in the
  Duden Rechtschreibung). An example for such a word is "Auflösung"
  ('resolution', as in the display settings). There should be no fl-
  ligature in words like "Auflösung". In the current German locale,
  there is.

  This problem is less salient in Maverick than in Lucid, but only
  because the ligatures of the new default system font (Dalton Maag's
  Ubuntu) are not visibly different from the unligated letters. The
  basic problem persists, though. It can be reproduced by choosing a
  system font that displays ligatures (for instance "Sans" as in Lucid).

  Of course, this problem is hardly noticeable at all. On one hand, the
  difference between a ligature and an unligated character sequence is
  hardly noticeable in today's typical system font (it is more
  noticeable in other fonts, e.g. Donald Knuth's Computer Modern). On
  the other hand, most people happily ignore the fact that ligatures are
  disallowed in some instances.

  In the very most ideal of worlds, this problem would be fixed by a
  system-wide automatic tool similar to a spell checker that would be
  called for by the German locale.

  In a more realistic, but still pretty ideal world, this problem would
  be fixed by manually inserting the character U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-
  JOINER (ZWNJ) in order to prohibit the ligature in the cases where it
  is disallowed. Only very few cases are affected, basically certain
  instances of "fl" and "ff". Certain instances of "fi" are potentially
  affected, but only in highly unlikely words such as "Schilfinsel"
  ('reed island'). If you want to achieve compatibility with fraktur
  fonts (which are equally unlikely), then certain instances of "tz"
  need to be fixed too, for instance, "Zeitzone" ('time zone').

  In a less ideal world, fixing this problem would be impossible because
  of a poor implementation of the ZWNJ.