Re: Bidi - will it happen ?

--- Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir <at> technion.ac.il> wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Jun 2002, Tim Freedom wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:39:23 +0300 (IDT),
> > Eli Zaretskii eliz <at> is.elta.co.il wrote:
> > >
> > > On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Moe Elzubeir wrote:
> > > > So I take it we are at square 0 ?
> > >
> > > Not exactly, but close.
> > >
> > > > I mean, where do I look to see exactly
> > > > what needs to be implemented and what the agreed upon
> > > > approach(es) if any.
> > >
> > > You can look in the archives of this mailing list.
> >
> > I'm at a loss here, why is it that qemacs
> >
> > http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemacs
> >
> > has been able to includebidi where-as emacs hasn't ?
> > Mind you I haven't been able to compile the package
> > (to verify for myself), but his claims still stand.
> 
> qemacs is not emacs.
> 
> qemacs is an editor with a number of similarities to emacs (mainly in the
> looks and behaviour. However, it is more of a light-weight text editor.
> Not much of a programable text-editor-and-a-kitchen-sink like emacs.

OK, so I'm comparing apples to organges, but the point that could be made
is that there is someone out there that is interested in bringing-forth the
same functionality - he should be contacted, at a minimum, to see if he has
interest in helping out, no ?

> >
> > I know nothing of lisp (let alone elisp), but can't
> > the inclusion of fribidi (fribidi.sf.net) be
> > incorporated somehow into the emacs code even as an
> > external call for the time being (irrespective of
> > inefficiency, ugliness, etc - given the user opts for
> > its inclusion) ?
> 
> fribidi is a library that mainly provides a method for converting logical
> Hebrew text to visual Hebrew text (in conformance with the unicode
> standard, and efficiently).

Arabic, Farsi, Thaana, Syriac and others are supported as well (let's
try to be broad about this :)

> Actually, from what I understand, a similar algorithm has already been
> implemented in elisp by Eli.
> 
> Using fribidi or a similar library probably means patching emacs itself.
> It also requires porting to various emacs ports. elisp is probably more
> portable, although has some penalty in performance.

According to the archives, Eli has spread himself a bit too thin (his words,
not mine).  What documentation is out there and what's the status of the
implementation ?  What's left to be implemented in order to garner someone
else's help in hopes of bringing forth a speedier solution until such time
as when Eli gets freed-up ?

Eli, what do you envision doing to speed-up this process ?  Who else might
be interested in helping ?

It would be nice to get Bidi completed sooner rather than later.

 .tf.

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