> No: common characters, such as parentheses or double quotes are supported > even on my system. So, the mechanism is already in place on many systems.
Please, execuse me but I need more explanation in this issue. When I need to enter parentheses or double quotes, I find two different symbols. Do you mean that these two distinct symbols are actually one symbol and its mirror made by the font designer? <don't laugh>I thought first that this mirror property means I just insert one symbol in any application and by changing the direction dir=rtl for example in FrontPage, I get the mirrored one</don't laugh>And how can I differentiate between such a thing and other sybmols which are made out of different glyphs. In summary, for me as a user the mirror property means nothing whereas for a designer it means a lot, am I right? Thanks for your generous help ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marco Cimarosti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Munzir Taha'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 1:27 PM Subject: RE: how can I write an arabic square root > Munzir Taha wrote (privately): > > Thanks, what I can understand now is that it's practically > > impossible to > > insert the Arabic sqrt symbol, at least up to today, isn't it? > > (Sorry for sending these private message back to the Unicode Mailing List, > but people there may have more information about Arabic fonts. Your original > question was about encoding, but fonts are a distinct issue.) > > Personally, I don't know a proper font for Windows. That does not mean that > it doesn't exist: as I don't speak any language written in Arabic alphabet, > I know just a few Arabic fonts. > > > Also, practically-speaking characters which have the mirror > > property can't be mirrored up to now. Is it like this? > > No: common characters, such as parentheses or double quotes are supported > even on my system. So, the mechanism is already in place on many systems. > > The problem is now just finding a Arabic font which also handles > mathematical symbols properly. You could try seeking such a font on these > sites: > > - http://www.microsoft.com/typography (about OpenType smart fonts); > > - http://fonts.apple.com (about ATSUI fonts, Apple's smart fonts). > > Moreover, depending on what you need to do, there are temporary ways of > obtaining the proper glyph. E.g., you can draw your own font containing just > that sign, or you could insert a bitmap in your text. > > By the way, mathematics requires very complex typographical capabilities > which are only handled by specific software. E.g., the square root symbol > normally extends over the value. E.g.: > ______ > |/ 15+10 = 5 (Western style) > ______ > 5 = 10+15 \| (Arabic style) > > > Similar layouts can only be achieved by specialized math packages. Every > package handles these things in its own way, and standardization is still at > the very beginning (for Unicode mathematics, see > <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr25/>: "Proposed Draft - PDUTR #25: Unicode > Support for Mathematics"). > > Good luck. > Marco > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Marco Cimarosti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "'Munzir Taha'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 3:44 PM > > Subject: RE: how can I write an arabic square root > > > > > > > > Take a look at this page > > > > http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/BidiMirroring.txt > > > > It says: "The following characters have no appropriate > > > > mirroring character > > > > ... #221A" > > > > > > Yes. And have you read the explanation at the top of the file? > > > > > > BidiMirroring.txt lists all the character which have the "mirrored" > > property > > > and, as you see, 221A is included. > > > > > > For some of these characters (especially parentheses, quotes, and > > arrow-like > > > operators) there is another Unicode character which looks > > like a mirror of > > > the first character. > > > > > > For these characters, font designers don't need to draw a special > > > right-to-left glyph, because they can reuse the > > left-to-right glyph of the > > > other characters. > > > > > > For all the other characters (including 221A), this saving cannot be > > > achieved, and font designers have to provide both the > > left-to-right and > > > right-to-left glyphs. > > > > > > The purpose of BidiMirroring.txt is showing for which pairs > > of mirrored > > > character fonts can save the two right-to-left glyphs. > > > > > > Rgds. > > > Marco > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > > From: Munzir Taha [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 12:56 AM > > > > To: Marco Cimarosti > > > > Subject: Re: how can I write an arabic square root > > > > > > > > > > > > Take a look at this page > > > > http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/BidiMirroring.txt > > > > It says: "The following characters have no appropriate > > > > mirroring character > > > > ... #221A" > > > > > In Unicode, there is no need for right-to-left versions of > > > > mathematical > > > > > symbols. > > > > You will find right-to-left versions of mathematical symbols. > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > > From: "Marco Cimarosti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > To: "'munzir taha'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 9:34 PM > > > > Subject: RE: how can I write an arabic square root > > > > > > > > > > > > > Munzir Taha wrote: > > > > > > It's just a english square root symbol flipped horizontally. > > > > > > I think there should be one in the unicode, doesn't it? > > > > > > > > > > In Unicode, there is no need for right-to-left versions of > > > > mathematical > > > > > symbols. The square root character U+221A is the same for > > > > English and > > > > > Arabic. > > > > > > > > > > The trick is that this kind of characters (punctuation, > > > > operators, symbol) > > > > > have a property, called "mirrored", which causes them to be > > > > displayed with > > > > a > > > > > reversed glyph when in a right-to-left paragraph. > > > > > > > > > > This is the theory: in order to make it really happen, you > > > > should have > > > > > support for "smart fonts" (such as OpenType), and the smart > > > > font you are > > > > > using should contain proper mirrored glyphs. > > > > > > > > > > Unfortunately, I don't know a single font being able to do this. > > > > > > > > > > _ Marco > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
