Re: [docbook-apps] Writing Hebrew in docbook

[Hillel <hillel dot t at gmail dot com>]

Bob Stayton wrote:

> Following up my own message, I should mention that when you use XEP or XSL
> Formatter, you generally don't need to specify writing direction.  Unicode
> assigns writing directions for characters, so the Unicode characters for
> Hebrew and Arabic are automatically set right-to-left by an XSL-FO processor
> that can do it.
>  
Hi Bob,

I need to specify the writing direction in order to get the paragraph 
aligned the right way.

Consider a Hebrew text that includes some English words versus an 
English text that includes some Hebrew words.

In the first case you will need to say that the paragraph "default 
direction" is right to left (words will go from right to left, first 
letter you type will appear rightmost, even if it's an english one), and 
in the latter you need to set it left to right (words go from left to 
right, first letter you write will appear leftmost).

What Unicode BiDi algorithm gives me is the ability to write the 
characters in Hebrew words the "logical" way without the need to reverse 
them, it does not correctly guess the paragraph direction, because it 
can't decide on paragraph direction for mixed paragraphs, that is why we 
use the HTML dir attribute to decide on a paragraph default direction, 
which aligns it accordingly.