Chris Jacobs <c dot t dot m dot jacobs at hccnet dot nl> wrote: > I did not mean to ask to display the ASCII sequence "\u05e0" as > "05e0u\" > I meant something else.
I THINK what you meant is that the ASCII sequence "\u0530", surrounded on both sides by real RTL characters, should appear as one continuous RTL string, instead of breaking the real RTL characters into two separate strings. The cursor would move LTR through the ASCII characters \ u 0 5 3 0 but RTL overall through the string. This isn't how the bidirectional algorithm works with ASCII characters, though. Each Unicode character has a directionality property. Some are strong LTR or RTL, some are weak LTR or RTL, and some are neutral -- their directionality is completely determined by the characters around them. (Sort of like the politics of some people I know.) ASCII characters are strong LTR, which means they will break up an RTL sequence in the manner you are seeing. This is true even if the ASCII characters combine to form a commonly understood notation representing some other Unicode character. The bidirectional algorithm doesn't do any form of semantic analysis on the text. To do so would constitute a customized, or I guess the word now is "tailored," version of the bidirectional algorithm, which might be great for some purposes such as the one you describe, but which wouldn't be Unicode-conformant. UniPad is simply being Unicode-conformant in this regard. -Doug Ewell Fullerton, California
