On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Dekel Tsur wrote:
> Before my patch is applied, I'm thinking of changing the file format for
> Hebrew documents.
> Currently, I use "\direction rtl" to switch to Hebrew and "\direction default"
> to return to English (regardless of the language of the document).
>
> However, it may be better to use a more general approach:
> If the language of the document is not Hebrew:
> Use "\locallanguage hebrew" to switch to Hebrew
> "\locallanguage default" to return to the language of the document.
>
> If the language of the document is Hebrew:
> Use "\locallanguage hebrew" to switch to English
> "\locallanguage default" to return to Hebrew
Surely it would be "\locallanguage english" to switch to English?
Anyhow, I would urge people to think carefully about this. What do we
really *want* to store. The language, or the writing direction?
In practice, you are only really changing the writing direction (and
default font, maybe?), since nothing else pays any attention to
\locallanguage. However, if the system was extended to affect the
spell-checker, then that would be brilliant. (Another huge functionality
win on Word, which currently chokes on multi-lingual documents,
underlining almost everything in Red until it goes mad).
Jules
/----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\
| Jelibean aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 6 Evelyn Rd |
| Jules aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Richmond, Surrey |
| Julian Bean | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TW9 2TF *UK* |
+----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+
| War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left. |
| When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy. |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/
