RE: [xsl] Arabic characters and FOP

Subject: RE: [xsl] Arabic characters and FOP
From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 08:47:50 -0500
At 2002-01-25 12:47 +0000, Tanzila Mohammad wrote:
I tried the following in an fo file:

<fo:block font-weight="bold" space-before.optimum="5pt">
   <fo:bidi-override
direction="rtl">&#1580;&#1583;&#1608;&#1604;</fo:bidi-override> text
</fo:block>

I tried this and I get this error
 property - "direction" is not implemented yet.
 element "fo:bidi-override" is not yet implemented.

Be careful, you may not need <fo:bidi-override> if I have guessed your intent from the subject of your message.


As I understand XSLFO, the formatter is obliged to respect the *inherent* direction properties of the Unicode characters you have in your formatted stream.

<fo:bidi-override> is just that ... it *overrides* the inherent directionality of the Unicode characters.

If you are mixing right-to-left Arabic characters with left-to-write Western European characters, you do *not* use <fo:bidi-override>.

Consider the stylesheet writer writing a stylesheet for global use, taking care to properly specify writing-direction-dependent properties so as to work properly with all scripts. It would be untenable to have to look inside the data to know when the stylesheet would have to control directionality of characters ... therefore it *has* to be the formatter's responsibility to address the directionality of Unicode characters.

Now, if you wanted to display Arabic right-to-left characters left-to-right, *then* you would use <fo:bidi-override>.

I hope this helps.

..................... Ken

p.s. as for FOP, I have no idea if it respects directionality or not ... sorry


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