Right-to-left languages support

[Quentin Cosendey]

Hello all,

My WXWidgets application is translated in 7 languages currently, so
everything regarding translation is already put in place and working great.

Today, someone asked me if he could translate my application in Arabic,
and I must admit that I don't know at all if it's possible, or difficult.

Given that Arabic is written from right to left, do I have to do
something special in the code to support that ?
I assume that everything should be more or less reversed on the screen ?
Texts aligned left should be aligned right ? Scrollbars should be on the
left instead of on the right ? etc.

Does Windows and/or WXWidgets do all that automatically for me, or do I
need to handle it manually ? What should I do specifically ?

Of course I don't want to change anything in my own Windows
configuration, since I don't speak Arabic at all and don't intent to.

I'm on Windows 10 or 11, WXWidgets 3.3.

Thank you for your answers.

[Vadim Zeitlin]

On Tue, 6 May 2025 07:52:10 +0200 Quentin Cosendey wrote:

QC> Given that Arabic is written from right to left, do I have to do
QC> something special in the code to support that ?

You need to set the locale correctly. Just using wxUILocale should work if
the system is using Arabic.

QC> I assume that everything should be more or less reversed on the screen ?
QC> Texts aligned left should be aligned right ? Scrollbars should be on the
QC> left instead of on the right ? etc.

Yes.

QC> Does Windows and/or WXWidgets do all that automatically for me, or do I
QC> need to handle it manually ? What should I do specifically ?

It's supposed to be handled automatically, but there may be bugs because
this is not that well-tested. In fact, I'd be surprised if you don't run
into any bugs... But the only way to know for sure is to try it and wait
for your users bug reports!

Regards,
VZ

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