bidi support, is it implemented in the right place?

[omri]

Hello, I was looking into the android source code and I have seen that
the implementation of BiDi text rendering is done in the StaticLayout
level.
I think it should be in the canvas.drawText level so that any
application that draws text will render BiDi text correctly.

I wanted to ask what is the reason the BiDi text support was
implemented at the StaticLayout level and not the canvas.drawtext
level, maybe there is a reason that i missed.

[omri]

Hey, I'm still waiting for an answer.
am I asking in the wrong place?

[Dianne Hackborn]

Android currently doesn't support bi-directional text, so anything you see in the current source is partial, incomplete, and not used.

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[omri]

Hey Dianne, thanks for your response.

Android currently supports bi-directional text in static layout, it
handles reversing the RTL text, so any of the simple Views do support
bi-directional text. (Not implemented perfectly but that's beside the
point.)
but when using canvas.drawText, it does not render the text currently
because its not implemented there.
so for example things that are not working are gmail subject lines,
street names on the new maps, and so more.

so it actually is used, but only in some places, so my question is,
shouldn't this be moved to the draw Text method?

On Mar 12, 9:31 pm, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com> wrote:
> Android currently doesn't support bi-directional text, so anything you see
> in the current source is partial, incomplete, and not used.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 3:45 AM, omri <omri.bau...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello, I was looking into the android source code and I have seen that
> > the implementation of BiDi text rendering is done in the StaticLayout
> > level.
> > I think it should be in the canvas.drawText level so that any
> > application that draws text will render BiDi text correctly.
>
> > I wanted to ask what is the reason the BiDi text support was
> > implemented at the StaticLayout level and not the canvas.drawtext
> > level, maybe there is a reason that i missed.
>
> > --
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> > .
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> >http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform?hl=en.
>
> --
> Dianne Hackborn
> Android framework engineer

> hack...@android.com

[Dianne Hackborn]

Sorry but what I said is true -- Android does not support bidirectional text.  There may be some bits and pieces here and there of some starts of implementation, but this is not supported, and if you try to do bidirectional text somewhere and it happens to work, you have just got lucky (and may not be lucky forever, as we won't guarantee whatever you do continues to work in the future, since it is not a supported part of the platform).

At some point real bidi support should be implemented, but I don't know of a schedule for that.

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[Lior Azi]

Hi Dianne,

As this matter (BiDi support) doesn't involve a small number of users/
customers but lots of them (Arabic & Hebrew) I think that the team
should give (atleast) an approximate time when such a support is
planned to be implemented.

Bidi support ,as being part of the infrastructure of languages, should
be on top priorities, in my opinion.

Thanks ahead,

Lior.

> > > > android-platfo...@googlegroups.com<android-platform%2Bunsubscrib e...@googlegroups.com>
> > <android-platform%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com<android-platform%252Bunsub scr...@googlegroups.com>

>
> > > > .
> > > > For more options, visit this group at
> > > >http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform?hl=en.
>
> > > --
> > > Dianne Hackborn
> > > Android framework engineer
> > > hack...@android.com
>
> > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to
> > > provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such
> > > questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see
> > and
> > > answer them.
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
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