Re: Linux i18n project coordination

From: Frank da Cruz (fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 15 1999 - 10:19:07 EDT


> The bad news:
>
> The lack of right-to-left support will probably not be fixed in the
> foreseeable future, because nobody has been able yet to explain to us
> how *precisely* this should work and interact with the many editing
> control sequences supported by a VT100 emulator.
>
A very brief and not-very-helpful comment: There was a Hebrew-model VT102
which did not address BIDI issues, but which allowed entry and display of
Hebrew letters. Display of RTL text was accomplished by per-character
cursor positioning. You can see this in action in the ALEPH library system
in use at most Hebrew-speaking universities.

Higher model VT terminals -- I think beginning with VT320 -- supported
host-directed switching of screen-writing direction. I'm not aware of any
major applications that took advantage of this feature, but that doesn't
mean there aren't any.

- Frank



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