Visiting Friends

Android, Apple OS X and iOS, Linux (including Balsa and Wasta), and Microsoft Windows 7 and 8, all provide excellent support for reading documents in languages other than English. Most provide good support for creating documents in major languages. Support for languages of wider communication (LWC) is mixed. Support for minority languages is best provided through Keyman ($23.99 for Windows) or Multiling Omni Keyboard (free for Android). Apple iOS should be avoided for non-major languages.Documents should be stored in UTF-8 Unicode, the default of most modern systems. Additionally, a language-appropriate virtual keyboard and language-specific font are required. Arial Unicode MS and Droid Sans are both safe fonts for any language; Gentium Plus is a good font for Latin-based alphabets.

The appendix includes simple flowcharts for five common Use Cases involving documents in non-English.

This paper was presented at the Society for Biblical Literature in November, 2014.