Changing Mac Character Code (Glyphs)

Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi fellow mac abusers!
Don't worry, I mean it in a good way.

So, I've been searching the internet for this topic, but have come almost empty handed.
So far, I know that characters are generated in the computer and then sent to the display, and encoding plays a big role in it. For example 0x41 = 'A' in the ASCII table. What I can't seem to figure out is where this process goes on.
As a startup I would like to be able to change the indexing of the character codes. For example, typing 0x41 will generate 'B' instead of 'A'.
Further on I would like to create my own glyphs (which I have ready) so I can create a system with a different language. I obviously know it won't really be a different language because transferring the data to another system will show normal ASCII.
If no one has a clue, I won't be surprised. But if some one could give me some references or good keywords to search with, I would be more than delighted. It would also be nice if someone could tell me if this is embedded in the hardware or if it's still controllable through software.

Think about running >console with alien characters that you can read and others can't!! Pretty cool huh?

Thx in advance.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
The place to start might be Apple's Introduction to Text System Overview, Cocoa Text Architecture Guide, and
Text Editing Programming Guide. It looks like the information to understand how the keyboard returns its code and to use that data is in them. Based on the little I saw, try that last one first.

You said you have created your own glyphs, but not how. To work with any of the OS X text systems and therefore all apps, I believe you should be creating Postscript fonts. Font creation is a huge topic in it's own right.

As for shifting 'A' to 'B' for the code returned, I can't see the purpose of that beyond rudimentary encryption. I think that would be an app specific thing because trying to implement that system wide would likely break every other app.
 
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
C++

The only way I was able to do this, was to create a character converter with C++, so the ascii character codes go beyond 127, into the lesser known characters like ╩▄▀╧╦╨╧═╨╧═╨╘╤╙╒╘╙═╤╧╥Γ▐╬═█╧╦╨╤.
But to create a whole new library of characters is a different deal. I know nothing about changing character fonts or creating new ones, so good luck.
 
OP
Ubereinkunft
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks xstep for the references. However, it could not help me because I just don't know enough about the system itself. Obviously, there is much that I have to learn as a young padawan. So instead of going top-down, I have decided to go bottom-up by learning OS construction. I am sure I will be able to grasp how characters are displayed through binary code. I will post as soon as reach my goal.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top