[XeTeX] xetex and the unicode bidirectional algorithm.

[Khaled Hosny]

On Thu, Dec 05, 2013 at 12:29:40PM +0100, Zdenek Wagner wrote:
> 2013/12/5 Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny at eglug.org>:
> > On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 12:31:58AM -0500, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
> >> On Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 5:33 PM, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny at eglug.org> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, Dec 03, 2013 at 01:42:21PM -0500, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
> >> >> Does XeLaTeX implement the Unicode BiDi algorithm?
> >> >
> >> > Short answer: no.
> >> >
> >> > I think sample documents (minimal working example) are needed for any
> >> > useful suggestion.
> >>
> >>
> >> Attached are the first 23 references from
> >> https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A5%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84#.D9.85.D8.B5.D8.A7.D8.AF.D8.B1
> >> (the Arabic wikipedia article on Istanbul), as generated by my XeLaTeX
> >> formatter.
> >>
> >> Things to notice:
> >> 1) Unicode BiDi algorithm at work in web version in places like
> >> citation [1], "Statistics of the 2010 Turkey census".  XeLaTeX renders
> >> this backwards.
> >
> > You need to explicitly markup LTR and RTL text, e.g. using polyglossia
> > or bidi. You need this to enable hyphenation as well, citations 12 and
> > 13 have very bad spacing because no hyphenation was enabled, for
> > example. I guess the tool that generates the TeX file will have to do
> > that.
> >
> >> 2) Broken italic for arabic in GNU freefont in citation [2].
> >> (straightforward to fix)
> >
> > Please, please, please, never ever use GNU free font for Arabic; it is
> > the most hideous, crappy and useless un-Arabic font ever created, my
> > blood boils every time I see it in use.
> >
> Could you summarize what is wrong and report it?

All of it, the Arabic range is utter crap.

> Steve White will
> certainly fix it (unless it is better toreplace the whole Arabic
> block).

I did, and even offered to work on replacement, but the offer was turned
down.

> I see problems with dochachmee he, Urdu words as بھآرت and ؔٹھیک are
> not displayed properly.

There is no point in looking at the microlevel, the whole thing is
worthless garbage and should be tossed in the nearest trash bin. Whoever
designed it has absolutely no idea about Arabic and its design, I take
it personally and find this garbage an insult to the Arabic script. Show
a text typeset with it to an Urdu speaker and he is likely to vomit in
disgust.

Regards,
Khaled