https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168537
--- Comment #20 from Jonathan Clark <[email protected]> --- In ODF (and LO), paragraph directions are explicitly defined in terms of the Unicode BiDi algorithm, and are provided for the purposes of languages we conventionally consider RTL. The right-to-leftish paragraph writing modes are appropriate for these conventional RTL use cases. They are neither intended for nor defined in a way that is appropriate for other uses. (Reference: ODF Appendix E.1.) In the exceptionally rare case that you want CJK text with right-to-left character progression, setting your paragraph to RTL will not do what you want because Unicode defines CJK characters as bidi class L. In order to support such right-to-left CJK, we would need to add some new feature. How to design that feature would be a separate discussion. Right-to-left CJK is not obviously relevant to this specific discussion about an existing LO feature which caters to conventional RTL use cases. This is also naturally so. Consider that English may also be written right-to-left. In this case, characters are mirrored. Like the Japanese example, you will mostly see this on signs and vehicles. Roughly 20% of humanity speaks English. Despite these facts, we would not argue that right-to-left paragraphs should cater to English and display English text mirrored, because we intuitively understand this is not the purpose of right-to-left paragraphs. Right-to-left paragraphs are for languages like Arabic and Hebrew. When we make a paragraph right-to-left, we expect English and Japanese characters inside that paragraph to be laid out according to what makes sense for Arabic and Hebrew readers, not according to what makes sense for English or Japanese readers. Right-to-left horizontal CJK is also a niche use case. Claiming it affects 10% of humanity distorts the issue. In practice, 0% of humanity needs to regularly write right-to-left horizontal CJK, and the 0% plus epsilon of humanity with this occasional need may already accomplish it by other means. Arguments based on total user impact can be helpful, but we should try to make meaningful estimates rather than exaggerations. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.
