GNU bug report logs - #35319
Guix System installer text direction wrong for RTL languages

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Guix System installer text direction wrong for RTL languages
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2019 12:05:34 +0200

On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:06:31PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> I made changes to the installer so it’s almost ready as far as I’m
> concerned.  It now displays language and territory names in the right
> language.
> 

Language names for Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew are shown Left-to-Right (LTR)
instead of Right-to-Left, e.g. العربية is displayed wrongly as ‭العربية‬.

Regards,
Florian

Message #8 received at 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#35319: Guix System installer text direction wrong for RTL
 languages
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2019 17:26:35 +0200

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:06:31PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> I made changes to the installer so it’s almost ready as far as I’m
>> concerned.  It now displays language and territory names in the right
>> language.
>> 
>
> Language names for Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew are shown Left-to-Right (LTR)
> instead of Right-to-Left, e.g. العربية is displayed wrongly as ‭العربية‬.

Ouch, good point!  I have no idea what it takes to display RTL languages
properly.  AFAIK ‘gettext’ simply returns a string, so I guess it’s up
to the UI toolkit (Newt?) to do the right thing?

Ludo’.

Message #11 received at 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
To: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#35319: Guix System installer text direction wrong for RTL
 languages
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2019 20:11:49 +0200

On Fri, Apr 19, 2019 at 05:26:35PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:
> 
> > On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 12:06:31PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> >> I made changes to the installer so it’s almost ready as far as I’m
> >> concerned.  It now displays language and territory names in the right
> >> language.
> >> 
> >
> > Language names for Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew are shown Left-to-Right (LTR)
> > instead of Right-to-Left, e.g. العربية is displayed wrongly as ‭العربية‬.
> 
> Ouch, good point!  I have no idea what it takes to display RTL languages
> properly.  AFAIK ‘gettext’ simply returns a string, so I guess it’s up
> to the UI toolkit (Newt?) to do the right thing?
> 

Debian has a similar bug:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=917909

The

https://salsa.debian.org/mckinstry/newt/blob/debian/master/debian/README.Debian

says:

Debian's version of newt include Bidirectional text support not yet present
upstream, including an API addition "newtCheckboxSetWidth". Please only use
this within Debian until it is supported upstream.

There is a

https://salsa.debian.org/mckinstry/newt/blob/debian/master/debian/patches/bidi.patch

However, I do not know how to use this.

Regards,
Florian

Message #14 received at 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: "pelzflorian \(Florian Pelz\)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de>
Cc: 35319 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#35319: Guix System installer text direction wrong for RTL
 languages
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2019 01:00:37 +0200

"pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian <at> pelzflorian.de> skribis:

> The
>
> https://salsa.debian.org/mckinstry/newt/blob/debian/master/debian/README.Debian
>
> says:
>
> Debian's version of newt include Bidirectional text support not yet present
> upstream, including an API addition "newtCheckboxSetWidth". Please only use
> this within Debian until it is supported upstream.
>
> There is a
>
> https://salsa.debian.org/mckinstry/newt/blob/debian/master/debian/patches/bidi.patch

Thanks for researching it.  We may be unable to fix it for 1.0 but we
should definitely address it.

Ludo’.

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