Subject: Re: boustrophedon: should I bother with abiword?
From: Dom Lachowicz (dominicl@seas.upenn.edu)
Date: Wed May 23 2001 - 20:03:53 CDT
Hi,
Oh, so this is what you want :-)
Please compile AbiWord with ABI_OPT_BIDI_ENABLED=1 (make clean realclean
first, though).
This'll enable Abi to do BiDirectional text like how you want (hebrew,
etc..) I suggest getting Abi from CVS because now you can import MSWord
DOCs with BiDi text in them. IIRC, Tomas has also fixed a few bugs since
0.7.14 too.
Please try this out and see if it meets your needs. If it doesn't, we'd
like to see any other features added to AbiWord too. It shouldn't be too
hard to do.
Dom
On 23 May 2001 18:05:50 -0600, Simmon Keith wrote:
> Okay. I only got one (short) response to my font question. I guess I'll
> expand... I need a cross-platform word processor (Linux, Windows, Mac) that
> will not only function normally, but also have a mode/tag that writes text
> right-to-left/'backwards' (this could be handy for writing Hebrew).
>
> Here's where it actually gets tricky: It primarily needs to be able to write
> boustrophedonically (back-and-forth). (I also might add a mode for Rongorongo
> -- which goes back and forth like boustrophedon, but *rotates* the characters
> on the "backwards" lines instead of just making them face leftward).
>
> I wrote a tcl/tk program that formatted text files this way. But there was no
> support for multiple fonts (I had a static font, with two copies: forward &
> backward). No bold, italic, underline or the like. I also had no facility
> for tweaking the formatting (deciding how many blank lines to put between
> paragraphs, deciding whether it's appropriate to change direction on a new
> paragraph, changing margins, full justification(?)). I also never tackled
> proportional-width fonts...
>
> My Question Is:
> Is it even possible to modify AbiWord to give me this behavior? If so, is
> it *practical* to do so? Sure, a lot of the wp stuff is already done for me,
> but might it not be more difficult to modify than it would be to start from
> scratch; should I give up on Abiword and explore other venues for getting my
> project where it needs to be?
>
> Thanks for putting up with my long-winded explanation. I appreciate any
> feedback. --Simmon
>
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