Unicode Normalizer has graduated!

This technology has been incorporated into International Components for Unicode for Java (ICU4J ) & ICU (ICU4C). ICU4J is an open-source project for Java Internationalization/Unicode support classes that add onto the JDK. ICU4C is a set of C/C++ libraries for Internationalization/Unicode support.

UnicodeNormalizer is now the com.ibm.text.Normalizer package in ICU4J.

These Java internationalization and text processing classes were developed by engineers in the International and Text group at the IBM Center for Java Technology in Cupertino, CA. This group has several missions, including the following: working closely with Sun to maintain and enhance the international classes in the Java Developer's Kit; developing the corresponding IBM Classes for Unicode in C and C++; providing support for bi-directional and complex text in JDK 1.2; and working on research projects, such as those you see here, for possible inclusion in future versions of the JDK and/or ICU.

Team members who contributed classes to alphaWorks are Mark Davis, Doug Felt, Alan Liu, Markus Scherer, Helena Shih, Steven Loomis, Stephen Booth, Bertrand Damiba, Richard Gillam, John Raley, Kathleen Wilson, and Laura Werner.

Mark Davis (Normalizer, StringSearch) is a senior technical staff member responsible for international software architecture. Mr. Davis co-founded the Unicode effort and is the president of the Unicode Consortium. He is a principal co-author and editor of the Unicode Standard (Version 1.0 and the new Version 2.0). At various times, his department has included software groups covering text, international issues, operating system services, Windows porting, and technical communications. Technically, he specializes in object-oriented programming and in the architecture and implementation of international and text software.

Doug Felt (RichEdit Control) is the project lead for Complex Text in Java at the IBM Center for Java Technology (CJT). As part of the Text and International team at Taligent and at the CJT, he contributed to the development of the bi-directional text support in JDK 1.2 and in Swing. Mr. Felt worked on the original RichEdit control at Taligent, and he ported the bi-directional text classes to JDK 1.1. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

Alan Liu (Big NumberFormat) works in the Java Technology Center on internationalization and JDK support. He has been working with C++ and Java frameworks since 1992, when he joined Apple's Pink team, the predecessor of Taligent. Dr. Liu holds an MD from UCSD and an EE from Stanford.

Steven Loomis joined Taligent in 1993 and has worked on networking, messaging, and Web server frameworks. After a temporary assignment to a cross-functional, bidirectional, text-enablement project, he joined the International Classes for Unicode C/C++ team. Mr. Loomis has been an advocate for Linux and has, as a hobby, Linux system administration.

Markus Scherer works in the Center for Java Technology on the IBM Classes for Unicode. Since graduating from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, in Computer Science, he has worked on projects for Wireless and Mobile Computing with IBM in Heidelberg, Germany, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. A strong interest in languages brought him into the Internationalization parts of the projects, where he assisted translation efforts and wrote tools that made use of Unicode. Mr. Scherer's tasks now include working on the bi-directional text support in ICU.

Helena Shih is the technical lead of the IBM Classes for Unicode at IBM's Center for Java Technology, Cupertino. Previously, she was a member of the Java i18n team at Taligent and contributed to the JDK 1.1 international classes. Ms. Shih has also worked for Dataware Technologies and Apple's Advanced Technology Group. She holds an MSc degree from University of Massachusetts. She is a native of Taipei, Taiwan.

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