Re: Unicode and Bidirectional writing in GNOME

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

Tal> Can anyone shed light on whether GNOME supports (or plans to
Tal> support...) Unicode characters and bidirectional writing (needed
Tal> for languages written from right to left such as Hebrew, Arabic,
Tal> etc...) ?

This has been discussed a couple of times on the gtk list.

As I understand it, there definitely is interest in having Gtk (and
Gnome) support Unicode.  I don't believe anyone is working on this
yet, however.

I believe most of the actual work to be done is in Gtk, not Gnome.

Tal> I am very much interested in helping make GNOME aware of
Tal> bidirectional languages from its base, so that it appeals to
Tal> countries that use those languages.

As I recall, the consensus was that there are a few steps:

1. Make Gtk able to render text right-to-left (actually, maybe it can
already.  I don't know).  This is useful for menus and buttons, where
mixing languages is not likely.

2. Change Gtk so that (most) layouts can be automatically mirrored
about the vertical axis when the locale specifies a right-to-left
language.  This change will get you a more natural-looking GUI (or so
I'm lead to believe).

3. Change Gtk so that it can render mixed-language text.  This is much
more complicated than the previous two items.  The Unicode bidi
rendering algorithm is complex.

However, don't take my word for it; my memory sucks.  Check the
archives.

Tal> If anyone is working on this, or simply has a firm understanding
Tal> of GNOME's architecture, I would very much appreciate recieving
Tal> as much info as possible on the subject, together with pointers
Tal> on what needs to be done, and where to start from.

The archives of the gtk list are probably a good place to start.  As I
recall, Owen Taylor had a couple specific recommendations for
implementing step #2, above.

Tal> By the way, are there any archives of this mailing list? I
Tal> couldn't find any mention of such archives...

Go to the mailing list page on www.gnome.org.  Click on the name of a
list to get the archives -- this is mentioned in the fine print.

Tom