From: Tex Texin
Message: 1529
Date: 2003-07-30
>--
> Peter T. Daniels scripsit:
>
> > What a lame excuse. If a word in another script is dropped into the
> > first script, the first script doesn't become "bidirectional"! If it
> > did, why wouldn't the same apply to a passage in English with a Hebrew
> > word dropped in, as is often found in discussions of biblical text?
>
> Indeed. We should rightly speak not of bidirectional scripts (still less
> bidirectional languages) but of bidirectional rendering, and which scripts
> (and, a fortiori, languages) require it. It turns out that in practice
> texts written in RTL scripts always require bidirectional rendering,
> for processing numbers if nothing else, whereas LTR scripts can often
> get along with LTR-only rendering, although bidirectional rendering is
> of course required for full generality.
>
> On a related topic: I have heard several Persian-speakers say that when
> handwriting it is customary to write numbers LTR with the most significant
> digit written first, as is done in Hebrew. But I have not been able
> to determine if the same is true when writing Arabic, or if the least
> significant digit is written first. Does anybody know?
>
> --
> John Cowan jcowan@... www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
> I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths
> led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. I am the clue-finder,
> the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. --Bilbo
>
>
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