https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92655
Bug ID: 92655
Summary: Some Language & Script Handling Bugs and Reviving a
Dead Horse
Product: LibreOffice
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Severity: normal
Priority: medium
Component: Writer
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Created attachment 117159
--> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=117159&action=edit
Detailed steps to reproduce the bugs listed
This submission deliberately ignores the usual recommended practice of creating
separate reports for each bug or enhancement request. This is done for two
reasons:
1) It seems almost certain that many – if not all – of the bugs and/or
questionable behaviors described in this report are very closely related, as
are the enhancement suggestions. It seems more advantageous to view these as a
forest than as individual trees (as has been done in the past with a few of
them) in order to properly assess their impact on non-Latin word processing.
2) Rather than suggesting that these bugs and questionable behaviors be
‘fixed,’ my suggestion is rather that a complete redesign and (hopefully)
overhaul of that part of LibreOffice related to Languages, Scripts, and Complex
Text Layout (CTL) be undertaken, with the whole concept of CTL being abandoned
completely. It is unnecessary with contemporary operating systems, and it
causes problems.
The attached ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse.pdf’ document will provide those interested with
detailed explanations, steps for reproducing the behaviors, and explicit
examples demonstrating how to test these behaviors without requiring ANY
knowledge of the particular languages or scripts (and there are several) used
in the examples. I’ll address the important ‘Dead Horse’ reference after first
enumerating the Bugs.
The specific bugs and annoyances being reported here can be summarized as
follows:
Bug #1: Writer considers shared Latin characters (space, punctuation, etc.) as
specifically Latin when detecting non-Latin scripts, causing confusing cursor
movement in right-to-left scripts as well as other inappropriate behaviors.
–see page 2 of ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Bug #2: Writer displays/reports an incorrect ‘Text Language’ in use. –see page
3 of ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Bug #3: Writer makes arbitrary, unrequested, inappropriate, and often
befuddling font and glyph substitutions, although its choices can usually be
determined with a little effort. –see page 3.
Bug #4: Writer then makes even further font substitutions (i.e. beyond and in
addition to those referenced in Bug #3), and these require quite a bit of
effort to determine. –see page 3. Bug #4 might be specific to Linux
distributions. –see page 30 of ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Bug #5: Writer reports the wrong Font-in-Use. –see page 3.
Annoyance #1: I’ve classified the effort required to determine the font in use
as Annoyance #1.
Recommended Enhancement #1: Under Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Appearance,
include an option to add a color setting to indicate font substitution and/or
glyph substitution (per step 10, bullet three in the ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’
document). A related enhancement might be an indication of whether ‘bold’ or
‘italic’ text is using a legitimate bold or italic variant of the font in use,
or whether either is being simulated.
Annoyance #2+: Only one so-called ‘CTL’ script can be used in a document
without a significant level of pain and confusion. –see page 4 of
‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’. I've only listed this as an annoyance, as it has been an
open bug (42123) for some time.
The reason for the ‘+’ is that the CTL acronym is used as if it refers to a
characteristic of language, rather than as a characteristic of a script. This
is not mere quibbling over semantics, as this misunderstanding adversely
affects many of Writer’s operations.
Annoyance #3: Directly shifting between different ‘Tools > Options’ panels
isn’t always possible. –see page 8 of ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Annoyance #4: The five language settings on the ‘Basic Fonts (Western)’ and
‘Basic Fonts (CTL)’ panels are tedious to use and could be made a bit more
friendly. –see page 8 (ibid).
Unnumbered Annoyance: I occasionally need to restart Writer rather than simply
close the ‘Languages’ panel in order for CTL font and size settings to take
effect, but I have never been able to pin down the circumstances required to
reproduce it, so it is only mentioned briefly –see page 9.
Annoyance #5: Handling of keyboard shortcuts when non-Latin Input Methods are
selected could use some attention. Under some conditions, [Ctrl + whatever]
isn’t detected –see page 9. I've only listed this as an annoyance, as it is
already an open bug (66772).
Bug #6: Characters entered can be ‘lost’ or ignored under repeatable
conditions. –see page 10 (ibid).
Recommended Enhancement #2: Under Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Appearance,
include an option to color-code text that has direct formatting applied. (per
step 25 in ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse.’)
Unnumbered Annoyance: When multiple cells in a Writer table are selected, the
‘Clear Direct Formatting’ function doesn’t seem to work. I haven’t thoroughly
tested this, so it is only mentioned briefly.
Bug #7: Incorrect style applied when setting CTL fonts. –see page 11 of
‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Annoyance #6: Recommended workarounds for several issues discussed here are
tedious –see page 12.
Annoyance #7: Layout of ‘Languages’ Panel can be misleading –see page 13 of
‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’.
Bug #8: The taxonomy of the ‘Languages’ panel choices is logically flawed.
–see page 13.
Bug #9: Full Justification is improperly completed in Right-to-Left scripts
(ironic since Arabic’s more sophisticated Kashideh RTL justification seems to
be handled well. –see page 13.
Bug #10: Characters in Right-to-Left scripts cannot be rotated; furthermore if
they are pasted into a frame formatted with character rotation, their order is
reversed. –see page 17.
In order to become familiar with the scope of these bugs and annoyances, I
would suggest reading through the entire document before attempting to follow
all the steps in detail, but that’s just my opinion.
While ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’ began as a series of steps needed to reproduce the
behaviors of concern, it soon grew into a rambling (and possibly opinionated)
essay. The ‘dead horse’ reference, an allusion to the English language idiom
‘beating a dead horse,’ reflects another objective of ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’: to
reopen some occasionally passionate earlier discussions about similar bug
reports that ended up being ignored, avoided, unresolved, or simply
misunderstood. I’ll be referring to these discussions as the ‘Voices of Reason’
discussions – the name is based on a July 2012 comment during those exchanges
where poster Shahar Or said ‘the voices of reason’ have been present here.’
These can be seen at any of these links:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2012-June/033552.html
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2012-July/034427.html
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice/2012-July/034958.html
The ‘Bugs-and-a-Horse’ document is intended to support my beliefs that a) due
to progress, some fundamental sections of LibreOffice have been become obsolete
and perhaps even irrelevant since they were first developed, and b) the time to
revise this subsystem is now, and it should be given priority. Therefore, some
historical and architectural perspective – showing why the time to revise this
subsystem is now – is included.
A second document, titled ‘Exploring_CTL.pdf’ is also attached as a
supplemental discussion of various aspects of what is known as ‘Complex Text
Layout.’
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