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Re: A question about a small "makaf"






As far as I know, the only *standard* which defines how logical Hebrew
text must be displayed is Unicode, and more particularly its Technical
Report 9.  The Israeli bureau of standards (SII == Standard Institution of
Israel) has also adopted the Unicode algorithm as its official algorithm.

Although Microsoft purports that Windows implements the Unicode algorithm,
they allow themselves some freedom, varying from one Windows version to
another.  NT4 and Win2k are the most conformant, but the handling of makaf
is not Unicode-conformant even in Win2k.

According to Unicode, hyphen-minus is a "European Number Terminator",
which means that if it appears within a number, or adjacent to a number on
either side, it must be handled like a digit, in fact extending the
number.  So if we have a sequence like   minus one two three, the minus
*must* appear on the left of 123, according to the Unicode standard.  When
hyphen-minus is not part of a number, it must be treated like a Neutral
(never as a LTR, as mentioned in a previous posting).

As said above, MS is still not fully Unicode conformant, but they claim
that they want to and will be (from the mouth of the National Language
person at MS Israel).  IMHO, it does not seem wise to spec Linux to
imitate some Microsoft bug/feature and ignore standards, both national and
international.  Also consider that different versions of Windows behave
differently, so it is not possible to be compatible with all of them
anyway.  While we still are at the beginning of the Hebrew road in Linux,
let us do the Right Thing, and stand by the standards.

By the way, one proper solution to keep the makaf on the right side of the
number in the example given is to add a RLM (Right-to-Left Marker) between
the makaf and the number.

And another aside:  with all due respect to FriBidi, it is not exactly
Unicode-conformant either.


Shalom (Regards),  Mati
           Globalization Center Of Competency - Bidirectional Scripts
           IBM Israel
           Phone: +972 2 5870999  ext. 1202    Fax: +972 2 5870333 Mobile:
+972 52 554160



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