Re: [emacs-bidi] UTR#9 - Unicode BiDi (was Re: OpenOffice BiDi kudos)

[Ehud Karni]

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On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 16:01:55 -0400, Behdad Esfahbod <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 11 Oct 2003, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>
> > > Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2003 04:15:13 -0400
> > > From: Behdad Esfahbod <address@hidden>
> > >
> > > Is it true that your implementation of Unicode Bidi algorithm
> > > does not follow the UTR#9, with respect to handligh dash?  Just
> > > wanted to make sure this is not true, otherwise, please consider
> > > following the standard.
> >
> > Handa-san is currently trying to plug the sequential implementation of
> > UAX#9 that I wrote into the Emacs display code.  The code I wrote
> > renders "H-5" as "-5H", as per UAX#9.  One needs to type "H-{RLM}5"
> > to get the "H-5" result that most Hebrew users want.
> >
> > I guess we will need to get used to type RLM and LRM in similar
> > situations, since we must be UAX#9 compliant, and since UAX#9 results
> > in such madness in quite a few cases like this, sigh.
>
> I guess you know the answer:  Use U+2010 HYPHEN instead of U+002D
> HYPHEN-MUNUS.

Your both missing the point. The user will do as she sees fit so the
the text she is typing will appear as she likes it. The problem is with
automatic text generated from stored data (reports), catalog numbers,
legacy data and internationalization/localization (which connects
predefined strings with dynamic data). All those problems can not be
solved by user actions, only by changing the UTR#9 standard.

As a programmer in an environment that produce many reports out of
data gathered over many years, I see these problem every day. One of
the very serious is the Hebrew names that has apostrophe (') after
their last character (and there are plenty of those), the apostrophe
move to the other end when the name is embedded in English text (our
preferred solution is adding RLM character after the name).

Adding formating characters or using strange UNICODE characters will
produce major problem for searches (Since the same visual display can
be produced by several Logical strings).

I say that the standard must be changed and improved before it is too
late (and the time is running out fast).

Ehud.


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