[Lazarus] Arabic beta tester for SynEdit needed

[Zaher Dirkey]

>From the first trying, Wow it works :D, but i need more tests.


On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 3:35 PM, Zaher Dirkey <parmaja at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> Good feature for me, but my question (Off Topic), why you interested in
> this feature while there is no many Arabic/RTL Lazarus users?
>
> For me, I will try to test it, and i like to look at the code too.
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 12:53 AM, Martin <lazarus at mfriebe.de> wrote:
>
>> A while ago, I started adding support for mixed LTR/RTL  text in SynEdit.
>>
>> The actual display of RTL text now works (that is, if you have some
>> arabic chars in the text, they display RTL, and the caret moves accordingly
>> / caret between RTL and LTR always means caret at LTR).
>> uf8 LTR/RTL markers are not supported. This is absolute basics only.
>>
>> Unfortunately with RTL came other unicode features, that sofar no one had
>> missed. Those are at the very least
>> - combining codepoints
>> - ligatures
>> - maybe reordering of codepoints.
>> - other?
>> They are tasks of different extent. And I need to find out what is
>> mandatory, and what optional. So I can then decide, what does fit into my
>> schedule.
>>
>> The current state is:
>> - combining: Only Arabic has been done (but they should be complete). So
>> none Arabic RTL will not work.
>> - ligatures: see below
>> - reordering: not researched, hopefully optional.
>>
>> "work"
>> means, that the text is stable (except ligatures, only with workaround),
>> and does not expand/shrink, when selecting text, or moving the caret. Also
>> that the caret will be at the correct pos. A newly inserted char will be
>> where the caret was. Can be tested by hitting the "end" key, and see if the
>> caret is at the end of visual text. If SynEdit thinks the text is
>> shorter/longer than the actual painted display, then there is an issue.
>>
>> ligatures:
>> The editor does not handle ligatures yet. So it calculates 2 screen
>> cells, when only one is needed. However a stable "workaround" exists
>> (currently depends on config)
>>
>> On windows and windows only (others will be done, if that turns out to be
>> any good). In Options / Editor / Display / set "Extra CHAR spacing" to 1
>> This will slightly widen the script, ignore that, its temporary.
>> Requires a proper monospaced font. (Deja vu mono)
>>
>> What it will do: It will tell windows, that the ligature is expected to
>> cover 2 display cells.
>> Display: Arabic text is a script, glyphs are connected by a continuous
>> line. The ligature will be in one cell, the next cell will be empty, except
>> for the connecting line.
>> Editing: The caret can be at either cell. Each cell stands for one of the
>> 2 chars in the ligature. So the 2nd char can be edited, if the caret is at
>> the empty cell
>>
>> ------------------
>> I need feedback from people who actually speak (or at least read and
>> write) Arabic. I need to know, if the above situation is "useable".
>>
>> If so, then:
>> - it can be fixed to work without the extra char spacing
>> - on gtk, carbon, qt (well at least I hope)
>> - combining can be added for other languages.
>>
>> If not, well I don't know yet.
>>
>>
> Best Regards
> Zaher Dirkey
>
>


-- 
I am using last revision of Lazarus, FPC 2.6 on Windows XP SP3

Best Regards
Zaher Dirkey
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