diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'README')
| l---------[-rw-r--r--] | README | 158 |
1 files changed, 1 insertions, 157 deletions
@@ -1,157 +1 @@ -This is GNU FriBidi -The Free Implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm. - -Background -========== - -One of the missing links stopping the penetration of free software in Middle -East is the lack of support for the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets. In order to -have proper Arabic and Hebrew support, the BiDi algorithm needs to be -implemented. It is our hope that this library will stimulate more free -software in the Middle Eastern countries. - -Audience -======== - -It is our hope that this library will stimulate the implementation of -Hebrew and Arabic support in lots of free software. Here is a small -list of projects that would benefit from the use of the GNU FriBidi -library, but of course there are many more: Wine, Mozilla, Qt, KDE, -lynx, OpenOffice. - -GNU FriBidi is already being used in projects like Pango (resulting in GTK+ -and GNOME using GNU FriBidi), AbiWord, MLTerm, MPlayer, and BiCon. - -Dependencies -============ - -Currently GNU FriBidi does not depend on any other library, but uses Glib if -available. It uses GNU Build System for build and installation on POSIX -systems. - -Downloading -=========== - -The latest version of GNU FriBidi may be found at: - - http://fribidi.org/ - -Building -======== - -See INSTALL for a description of how to build and install GNU FriBidi. - -License -========= - -GNU FriBidi is free software; you can redistribute it and/or -modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License -as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 -of the License, or (at your option) any later version. - -GNU FriBidi is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, -but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of -MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the -GNU Lesser General Public License for more details. - -You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License -along with GNU FriBidi, in a file named COPYING; if not, write to the -Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, -Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA - -For licensing issues, contact <license@farsiweb.info>. - -Implementation -============== - -The library implements the algorithm described in the "Unicode Standard -Annex #9, The Bidirectional Algorithm", available at -http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr9/. GNU Fribidi has been tested -exhaustively against the Unicode Reference Code, and to the best of our -knowledge, it completely conforms to the specification, always producing -the same result as the Reference Code. - -The library uses Unicode (UTF32) entirely. The character properties are -automatically extracted from the Unicode data files, available from: - - http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/ - -This means that every Unicode character is treated in strict accordance -with the Unicode specification. - -There is a limited support for character set conversion from/to the UTF32 -encoding. Data in these character sets must be converted into UTF32 before -the library may be used. iconv(3) can always do a better job on that, so you -may find that the character sets conversion code is typically turned off on -POSIX machines. - -The reordering of characters is typically done through the function: - - fribidi_boolean - fribidi_log2vis(/* input */ - FriBidiChar *str, - FriBidiStrIndex len, - FriBidiCharType *pbase_dir, - /* output */ - FriBidiChar *visual_str, - FriBidiStrIndex *position_L_to_V_list, - FriBidiStrIndex *position_V_to_L_list, - FriBidiLevel *embedding_level_list - ) - - -where - str is the Unicode input string - len is the length of the unicode string - pbase_dir is the input and output base direction. If - base == FRIBIDI_TYPE_ON then fribidi_log2vis - calculates the base direction on its own - according to the BiDi algorithm. - visual_str The reordered output unicode string. - position_L_to_V_list Maps the positions in the logical string to - positions in the visual string. - position_V_to_L_list Maps the positions in the visual string to - the positions in the logical string. - embedding_level_list Returns the classification of each character. Even - levels indicate LTR characters, and odd levels - indicate RTL characters. The main use of this - list is in interactive applications when the - embedding e.g. level determines cursor display. - -In any of the output pointers == NULL, then that information is not -calculated. - -How it looks like -================= - -Have a look at tests directory, to see some input and outputs, which -CapRTL charset means that CAPITAL letters are right to left, and digits -6, 7, 8, 9 are Arabic digits, try 'fribidi --charsetdesc CapRTL' for the -full description. - -Executable -========== - -There is also a command-line utilitity called fribidi that loops over -the text of a file and performs the BiDi algorithm on each line, also -used for testing the algorithm. Run fribidi with the --help option to -learn about usage. The command-line utility is known to have problems -with line-breaking and ltov/vtol lists. - -Bugs and comments -================= - -Report GNU FriBidi bugs at: - - http://fribidi.org/bug - -And send your comments to: - - fribidi@freedesktop.org - - -Behdad Esfahbod -behdad@gnu.org - -Dov Grobgeld -dov.grobgeld@gmail.com +README.md
\ No newline at end of file |