Re: [9fans] tfel-ot-thgir support

[Joel Salomon <salomo3@cooper.edu>]

> does it solve the general problem of bidirectional text in two dimensions?

from http://www.unicode.org/faq/middleeast.html :

> Q: Are any scripts written vertically?
>
> A:
<snip>
> Unlike the bidirectional case, the choice of vertical layout is usually
> treated as a formatting style; therefore, the Unicode Standard does not
> define default rendering behavior for vertical text nor provide
> directionality controls designed to override such behavior.

Unicode also does not provide formatting codes for bottom-to-top or
boustrophedon scripts. The RTL and LTR are for multiple levels of embedding
(LTR within RTL within LTR etc.) so that a sentence like ("logical"
order, ALL CAPS are RTL as in unicode examples):
 AVRAHAM SAID "the first two books of the bible are BERESHITH and SHEMOTH."
will print as:
 "the first two books of the bible are HTIHSEREB and HTOMEHS." DIAS MAHARVA
instead of the result of pure algorithmic bidi:
 ".HTOMEHS and HTIHSEREB the first two books of the bible are" DIAS MAHARVA

(Example from "Unicode Demystified", Richard Gillam, Addisson Wesley, 2003)

--Joel