On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:44:19 -0600, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny@eglug.org>  
wrote:

>> Get SC unipad and type identical logical input in Arabic and Farsi  
>> modes.
>> The makers of Unipad are Iranian and they implement both Arabic and  
>> Farsi
>> rules correctly, have keyboards etc.  AFAIK, no other editor implements
>> the bidi alg as well.
>
> I didn't use Unipad that much, but I think Gedit (GTK pased) does a
> perfect job,

No, it does not ;-)

> I'm not aware of any windows port of it though.

andLinux on W32 is wonderful, no more cygwin etc.

> I'd like to
> know what features in Unipad (regarding Arabic) that Gedit hasn't.

One example:

The following comes out correctly in Unipad, also in Opera's email  
composer (don't know how it will look in your client). It does not come  
out right in Windows Notepad or in gedit. Kate does get it right (and  
other kde apps as well), as well as OOo:

==============
European:
18%, 1--3

Arabic:
١٨٪، ١--٣

Farsi:
۱۸٪، ۱--۳
==============

See attached as well.

Unipad is designed as a complete unicode utility, and has lots of other  
nifty features as well, especially for editing Arabic script. Its  
Arabic-script editing features are truly unique and useful. Eg, I  
select/edit vowels horizontally not vertically.

Unipad has:

Char Info bar:
character code value (U+0000)
character name (if assigned)
character category (letter, decimal digit, etc.)
character block (script, collection, etc.)

Extended Char Info bar:
decimal character code value
encoded byte sequence (octals)
bidirectional character type
decimal digit value (only if the character represents a decimal digit)

Unipad is not a good choice for a programmer's or TeX editor, but in  
overall unicode editing it is unrivalled, although it has not been updated  
since Unicode 4.1.0 :-(

Best wishes
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523