Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!polya!rokicki
From: rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: typing right-to-left
Keywords: word processors, AmigaTeX, LaTeX
Message-ID: <12764@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 30 Oct 89 22:29:48 GMT
References: <1989Oct22.191705.5211@contact.uucp> <15984@pollux.UUCP> <1249@lakesys.lakesys.com>
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 59

mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com (Mike Shawaluk) writes:
> In article <15984@pollux.UUCP> bjc@pollux.UUCP () writes:
> >Does a word processor exist that can handle both English and Hebrew in the

> I would think that just about any word processor that uses standard Amiga
> fonts for display/printing of text (such as excellance! or PenPal) should be
> able to fill this need.  Of course, you would need an Amiga Hebrew font,
> which some enterprising soul would have to create via FontEd, assuming that
> there isn't one out there already, and you would have to type in the
> characters left-to-right.  (You say in your previous paragraph that this
> wouldn't be a problem)

There's one additional consideration---line breaking.  If I type a roman
alphabet, and then a hebrew alphabet (using caps for the latter), I want
to type

a b c d e f g h i j k l
m n o p q r s t u v w x
y z A B C D E F G H I J
K L M N O P Q R S T U V
W X Y Z

Now, the Hebrew should be read right-to-left, so what I want to see on
output (or on the screen) is

a b c d e f g h i j k l
m n o p q r s t u v w x
y z J I H G F E D C B A
V U T S R Q P O N M L K
Z Y X W

(whether that last line is left or right justified is a separate issue.)
I might be satisfied to type it in as above.  But if I wanted to insert
a word between the two, such as `and', what I get is

a b c d e f g h i j k l
m n o p q r s t u v w x
y z and J I H G F E D C B A
V U T S R Q P O N M L K
Z Y X W

Now the word processor has to be smart enough to `do the right thing', and
give me

a b c d e f g h i j k l
m n o p q r s t u v w x
y z and H G F E D C B A
T S R Q P O N M L K J I
Z Y X W V U

(ie, fill right-to-left in the hebrew sections.)  This can all be done
with a postpass.  You always type the hebrew left to right.  On output,
*after* the formatting, any line of hebrew is reversed before it is
printed.

I could be all wet in everything I'm saying here, but this is what I
understand the problem to be . . .

-tom