On Sat, 4 Dec 1999, Mark Leisher wrote:
> the expression "-10%" is written "%-10" in Persian.
You can not say that simply. English "10%" becomes "%10" in Persian,
but I think "-%10" is prefered to "%-10". BTW, in topics this much narrow
there are usually two gangs of typographers each one prefering one. There
are even those who write it "-10%" like in English.
My "The Book of Style" (Sheeveh-Naameh) by "Iran University Press" which
is one of the few widely used books about these, says nothing about
"-10%". I am translating the part refering to "%" and numerals to my best
effort.
"The percent sign comes as a % to the left side of the number. for
example %5 and %3.2."
You can make the rule general, but I think the authors have not thought
about negative numbers with percent sign, or they would make another
example. Me, with Persian Typography as one of my hobbies, prefer "-%10"
to "%-10". But I should ask gurus.
Your question about Unicode BIDI and this, remains for others to answer.
There should be some other cases also that these thing defer, for example,
for section numbers, some people refer to the twelfth section of second
chapter as ""12.2" (RTL) and some as "2.12" (LTR). The majority of
typographers prefer "12.2". They both read it "two-twelve". Of course
Unicode BIDI will render the sequence "2.12" and normal section numbers in
Persian will need explicit direction codes.
--Roozbeh
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