[Requests for RTL text]
> Hey, if I request it too, does that help? I didn't think so. I suspect that
> what you mean is "requests for this from people who will actually work on
> the coding have been very few, so it won't get done until someone has lots
> of free time."
It does help if more people say that they want it.
For instance, personally I don't need Unicode support, but I design the new
kernel with Unicode support in mind because this is a frequently requested
thing (indirectly.) Another factor in this decision is that we have several
different patches that enable LyX to be used with wide encodings, and obviously
it's advantageous to merge in all branches to one common code base.
Yes, the primary thing that makes thing happen is someone willing and able to
do it. Motivation mostly comes from own needs, but other things play a part.
One of these things is common feature requests. Others can be things like the
personal satisfaction of building something cool, eventhough you don't really
need it. Contrary to the commercial world, money does not play a significant
role in motivation -- often we even spend money in order to build things; it
costs money to host and attend ~M.
Having said that, I noticed that the Bazaar has $200 up for an WYSIWYG editor
that can write Hebrew (http://visar.csustan.edu/bazaar/bazaar_catoffers.html).
I guess that LyX would be close if we had full Unicode and RTL, and that could
be a well contribution to the LyX funds. But I wouldn't hold my breath.
Personally, I haven't even started struggling with LTR yet. The data structure
layer implementation turns out to be harder than I expected.
The fix for the segfault from Kayvan turned out to be no good -- the problem
was much more fundamental, and the segfault only a symptom of those flaws. The
fix was only a work around.
I've spent most of today fixing things properly (the interface has not changed
-- it's only the implementation.) Now, things are working as they should, and
I've made some significant progress so that the "insert" operation is
completely implemented now (but still not throughly tested.) However, the
"erase" method has taken a step back, and some of it has to be reimplemented.
When the "erase" method is done, I only need to do the "clone" method to reach
milestone 1.
I'll keep you posted on progress. After M1, the fun part will begin:
Displaying on screen! Nothing motivates better than the thrill of the first
pixels on screen after lots of hard work building the engine.
Greets,
Asger
