Comunidade do SQL Server

It was Friday afternoon when Santhosh (Santhosh Pillai, aka THE Santhosh, the guy who helped us with the collation story for Malayalam way back when) was asking a question. The question was:

Hi:

Is there an updated version of this page http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/keyboards/kbdinmal.htm available now that Malayalam has Atomic Chillus in Unicode 5.1?

Thanks
Santhosh

Interesting.... though of course the real underlying question should be more about the keyboard layout(s) in Windows -- the website is just a description of the set of layouts that are installed in the operating system.

Updating the web site (the actual website, I mean - not the old one we're talking about here!) is a separate matter, but that can't ever happen until/unless the thing the site is meant to be described is updated.

Now back in the old days, there was a time that I was one of the people Microsoft sent to Unicode Technical Committee meetings, one of the people who came back from those meetings working on how and when to make updates to Windows, sometimes the person who made the actual updates to the keyboard layouts, and always the person who checked in the final layouts to the product.

In those days, answering this question would have simply been an act of recollection -- remembering the salient details of

• the updates in Unicode;
• the plan for when to get the updates into fonts, character map, collation, and keyboards;
• how the plan went.

but now things are different.

The Malayalam Chillu debate was going on strong while I was still involved with Unicode, though no final decisions had been made. And whether or not a need existed to include atomic characters for these entities was a fairly central question that would have to be solved before anyone discussed what product changes would be needed and when.

But other people were minding those stores, I was doing other things.

So to answer Santhosh's question, I did it the old-fashioned way - I looked at the product to see what was there.

First, I started in Character Map. I knew the fonts would be updated (Peter Constable was the one who explained to me how the Chillus worked way back when this all first started in Unicode years ago), so I wanted to look and see if there were any characters that were in the font but not in the Charmap list of names, like this one:

Indeed, there are 17 of them if you include the atomic Chillus, the ones added for Sanskrit, the symbols, the signs, and so on:

•  ഽ U+0d3d MALAYALAM SIGN AVAGRAHA
•  ൄ U+0d44 MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN VOCALIC RR
•    ൢ U+0d62 MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN VOCALIC L
•    ൣ U+0d63 MALAYALAM VOWEL SIGN VOCALIC LL
• ൰ U+0d70 MALAYALAM NUMBER TEN
• ൱ U+0d71 MALAYALAM NUMBER ONE HUNDRED
• ൲ U+0d72 MALAYALAM NUMBER ONE THOUSAND
• ൳ U+0d73 MALAYALAM FRACTION ONE QUARTER
• ൴ U+0d74 MALAYALAM FRACTION ONE HALF
• ൵ U+0d75 MALAYALAM FRACTION THREE QUARTERS
• ൹ U+0d79 MALAYALAM DATE MARK
• ൺ U+0d7a MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU NN 
• ൻ U+0d7b MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU N
• ർ U+0d7c MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU RR
• ൽ U+0d7d MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU L
• ൾ U+0d7e MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU LL
• ൿ U+0d7f MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU K

Then I handed each one to LCMapString one at a time. None of them had weight in Vista but all of them have an assigned weight in Windows 7 (some as numbers, some as symbols, some as letters -- kine of what you might expect by looking at the list).

Okay, good so far -- just no updated character list in Character Map. Unfortunate, but hardly tragic, as the sadness over not seeing the name in the lower left hand corner of that dialog is quickly mitigated by the character's presence in the font itself! :-)

The keyboard story was less fortunate.

I loaded up the one and only keyboard layout in MSKLC:

took a quick look at the keyboard, and then saved it out as a KLC file looking at code points in case I missed anything.

They aren't there.

Oops.

My first reaction was that somebody must have messed up, been asleep at the switch, etc.

But then I realized that was how everyone felt whenever they came to me because of something they perceived as an omission or bug. Knowing more of the underlying infrastructure does not make me any more psychic than the people who used to come to me -- I cannot read the minds or intents of the owners.

Maybe the update was not so easy to do. The Character Map thing is an obvious omission, but that is just a small bug on someone to get it updated.

The keyboard layout is the complicated one, of course. The layout is based on the INSCRIPT standards coming out of India, and although adding the letters would not have been unreasonable, there are two sides to that story and there may well have been reasons not to add them, too.

Collation beyond the "some weight" question is an interesting one; ideally it would be handled with equivalences the way we did Romanian with the comma below/cedilla below.

Grabbing the table from the Unicode 5.1 update:

Table 1. Atomic Encoding of Chillus

	Visual	Representation in 5.0 and Prior	Preferred 5.1 Representation
1		NNA, VIRAMA, ZWJ (0D23, 0D4D, 200D)	0D7A MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU NN
2		NA, VIRAMA, ZWJ (0D28, 0D4D, 200D)	0D7B MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU N
3		RA, VIRAMA, ZWJ (0D30, 0D4D, 200D)	0D7C MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU RR
4		LA, VIRAMA, ZWJ (0D32, 0D4D, 200D)	0D7D MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU L
5		LLA, VIRAMA, ZWJ (0D33, 0D4D, 200D)	0D7E MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU LL
6		undefined	0D7F MALAYALAM LETTER CHILLU K

Ok, looking at the weights of the first five entries in that table:

They don't match. I'd have to see what else is in the Malayalam table to know if it is only the equivalence that wasn't done (there might be actual ordering issues also) but I can't tell for sure (I have my hands full trying to learn Tamil and Bengali!). Offhand the weights never look to far from each other, so perhaps it was just a conscious decision to not support the equivalance....

I honestly don't know the answer to any of the questions I posed above, but I can probably ask a question or two of some people next week (post re-org I'm not 100% sure owns all this stuff now, so it could take me some time to track down who to ask!).

But either way there are at a mimimum a few bugs that I found in all this; I'll talk to some testers I know down the hall about those ones even sooner.

As I said in the title, the two most important components of letting go and moving on are (1) letting go and (2) moving on. But I'm likely to get curious now and again about how things are going....

We’re pleased to announce that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant, by William Stanek, is now available for purchase in bookstores (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627123; 688 pages)!

Here’s the introduction from the author:

Introduction

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant is designed to be a concise and compulsively usable resource for Exchange Server 2010 administrators. This is the readable resource guide that you’ll want on your desk at all times. The book covers everything you need to perform the core administrative tasks for Exchange Server 2010, whether your servers are running on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. Because the focus of this book is on giving you maximum value in a pocket-size guide, you don’t have to wade through hundreds of pages of extraneous information to find what you’re looking for. Instead, you’ll find exactly what you need to get the job done.

In short, this book is designed to be the one resource you turn to whenever you have questions regarding Exchange Server 2010 administration. To this end, the book zeroes in on daily administrative procedures, frequently performed tasks, documented examples, and options that are representative although not necessarily inclusive. One of the goals is to keep the content so concise that the book remains compact and easy to navigate while at the same time ensuring that the book is packed with as much information as possible—making it a valuable resource. Thus, instead of a hefty 1,000-page tome or a lightweight 100-page quick reference, you get a valuable resource guide that can help you quickly and easily perform common tasks, solve problems, and implement advanced Exchange Server 2010 technologies such as EdgeSync subscriptions, local continuous replication, Outlook Anywhere, SMTP connectors, and Active Directory site links.

Who Is This Book For?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant covers the Standard and Enterprise editions of Exchange Server 2010. The book is designed for the following readers:

· Current Exchange Server 2010 administrators

· Current Windows administrators who want to learn Exchange Server 2010

· Administrators upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 from Exchange 2007

· Administrators upgrading to Exchange Server 2010 from Exchange 2003

· Administrators transferring from other messaging servers

· Managers and supervisors who have been delegated authority to manage mailboxes or other aspects of Exchange Server 2010

To pack in as much information as possible, I had to assume that you have basic networking skills and a basic understanding of e-mail and messaging servers. With this in mind, I don’t devote entire chapters to explaining why e-mail systems are needed or how they work. I don’t devote entire chapters to installing Exchange Server 2010 either. I do, however, provide complete details on the components of Exchange organizations and how you can use these components to build a fully redundant and highly available messaging environment. You will also find complete details on all the essential Exchange administration tasks.

I also assume that you are fairly familiar with Windows Server. If you need help learning Windows Server, I highly recommend that you buy Windows Server 2008 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant or Windows Server 2008 Inside Out.

How Is This Book Organized?

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant is designed to be used in the daily administration of Exchange Server 2010. As such, the book is organized by job-related tasks rather than by Exchange Server 2010 features. If you are reading this book, you should be aware of the relationship between Pocket Consultants and Administrator’s Companions. Both types of books are designed to be part of an administrator’s library. Pocket Consultants are the down-and-dirty, in-the-trenches books, while Administrator’s Companions are the comprehensive tutorials and references that cover every aspect of deploying a product or technology in the enterprise.

Speed and ease of reference are essential parts of this hands-on guide. The book has an expanded table of contents and an extensive index for finding answers to problems quickly. Many other quick reference features have been added as well. These features include quick step-by-step instructions, lists, tables with fast facts, and extensive cross-references.

The first two chapters provide an overview of Exchange servers and Exchange clients. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Exchange Server 2010 administration concepts, tools, and techniques. Chapter 2 discusses deploying Exchange Server.

Next I cover the fundamental tasks you need for Exchange Server administration. Chapter 3 details how Exchange environments are organized, how information is stored in Exchange Server, and how Exchange Server works. The chapter also explores Exchange message queues and Exchange Server service management. Chapter 4 discusses Windows PowerShell and the Exchange Management Shell, providing the essential background for using these powerful command-line environments for Exchange Server administration. Chapter 5 takes a look at creating and managing users and contacts. You’ll learn all about Exchange aliases, enabling and disabling exchange mail for individual users, forwarding mail offsite, and more. Chapter 6 discusses mailbox administration, including techniques for configuring special-purpose resource mailboxes, moving mailboxes, and configuring mailbox delivery restrictions. In Chapter 7, you’ll find a detailed discussion of how to use distribution groups and address lists. You’ll also learn how to manage these resources. Chapter 8 covers how to implement Exchange security.

In the next several chapters, I discuss advanced tasks for managing and maintaining Exchange organizations. Chapter 9 provides the essentials for managing database availability groups and using full-text indexing. Chapter 10 examines administration of mailbox and public folder databases. The chapter also covers how to recover disconnected mailboxes and deleted messaging items. Chapter 11 looks at how you can use public folders in the enterprise.

Chapter 12 provides a comprehensive discussion of deploying and managing Hub Transport servers and Edge Transport servers. The chapter examines SMTP connectors, Active Directory sites, Active Directory links, and connecting to Exchange 2003 routing groups. The chapter also examines configuring EdgeSync subscriptions, journal rules, transport rules, and anti-spam features. Chapter 13 provides a comprehensive discussion of deploying and managing Client Access servers. The chapter examines IIS Web servers, POP3, IMAP4, and Outlook Anywhere. The chapter also examines configuring Exchange Server features for mobile devices, including Autodiscover, Direct Push, Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policy, Remote Device Wipe, Password Recovery, Direct File Access, Remote File Access, and WebReady Document Viewing.

In Chapter 14, you’ll learn about troubleshooting essentials as well as Exchange maintenance, monitoring, and queuing. You’ll learn key techniques for using message tracking, protocol logging, and connectivity logging for troubleshooting. You’ll also learn techniques for automated monitoring and managing Exchange message queues—both of which can help ensure that your Exchange organization runs smoothly. Chapter 15 details how to back up and restore Exchange Server. You’ll learn key techniques that can help you reliably back up and, more important, recover Exchange Server in case of failure.

Chapter 16 covers Exchange client setup and management, and Chapter 17 extends the Exchange client discussion and looks at mobile Microsoft Office Outlook users as well as Exchange Active Sync, Outlook Web App, and Outlook Anywhere. With more and more users working on the road or from home, this chapter helps ensure that you can give these mobile users the best support possible.

Sample Chapters

To download sample chapters, as well as learning snacks and online clinics, be sure to visit the Microsoft Learning Exchange Server 2010 Training Portal.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/exchange-server.aspx

Hey, everybody. David Lean has posted a review of another recently published book on SQL Server 2008 by Microsoft Press: Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008, by Leonard Lobel, Andrew J. Brust, and Stephen Forte.

Dave posts his reviews on his Dave does Data (Tutorials, Performance Tuning, Tips & Techniques on SQL Server & its ecosystem) blog.

Dave’s summary is a good one:

It appears to me that the authors started this book with the premise “There is a lot in SQL2008 that can dramatically change the way you architect solutions. Many features elegantly remove some of the clunky poor performance approaches we use today” So they set about drawing your attention to those features & mapping it back to the problems you currently experience when writing applications.

The book is a good read, plenty of code examples & screenshots to help understand the subject quickly (not just to pad out the pages).

But I think you’ll find his chapter-by-chapter description of the book most helpful. He tells you exactly what’s covered in each chapter so that you can determine if the book will meet your needs.

Dave even comments on how well the authoring team worked together (because, as we all know, sometimes multi-author books suffer quality-wise from the approach):

Like SQL 2008 Internals, this book is written by a team of authors. Handy because it is hard to specialise in everything. Compared to the SQL Internals authors, they must have spent much more time peer reviewing as there is a lot less variation in style between each chapter. Though you can see one author was keen to give a little background while one of the others prefers to dive right in.

Thanks again, Dave, for sharing your thoughts on our books. We look forward to your future feedback!

Just a quick update for you about a topic that some of you have raised.  In case you did not see it, the Microsoft Exchange Team announced earlier this week that based on the feedback we have received, the decision has been made to create and issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support for Windows Server 2008 R2.  According to the Microsoft Exchange Team’s blog post:

“Earlier this year we made a decision in one direction, and due to the feedback we have received on this blog and elsewhere, we have reconsidered.  In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2.”

• Kevin Allison - GM Exchange Customer Experience

For those of you doing work with Microsoft Exchange Server, you may want to sign up to follow the Microsoft Exchange Server Team Blog for the latest news from them, in addition to being able to provide feedback to us on Microsoft Exchange.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights