> Omer wrote: > Due to Microsoft's actions, there are more than one version of BiDi > algorithm in use. The Hebrew versions of different MS-Word versions > implement slightly different BiDi algorithms. I don't know what is > the situation in Arabic and Persian. > > In order for AbiWord and other Free Software word processors to fully > replace Microsoft wordprocessors, it must be possible for them to > faithfully import files produced by Microsoft wordprocessors, in *.doc > and/or *.rtf formats. >
There are three issues here: (1) reproducing the Word doc layout faithfully in AW; (2) from the AW user's point of view having a consistent BIDI behaviour irrespective of the document format; (3) exporting the document to rtf/doc in a manner that will ensure faithful layout when viewed by Word. I think the only way to satisfy both (1) and (2) is for the MSWord importer to insert explicit direction overrides based on the version of Word that created the document so that the bidi ordering when processed with the Unicode algorithm would be the same as that produced by Word on that document. In any case, dealing with this no trivial. Tomas
