or (important case) 1b) the rendering system uses a transform to get the mirrored glyph.
While (1) is preferred (a simple geometric transform may not be the optimal mesh with the design of the rest of the characters), (1a) is far better than (2). Mark ————— Γνῶθι σαυτόν — Θαλῆς [For transliteration, see http://oss.software.ibm.com/cgi-bin/icu/tr] http://www.macchiato.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marco Cimarosti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Eric Muller'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "'Munzir Taha'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 29, 2002 10:25 Subject: RE: how can I write an arabic square root- I think I've understood a little.-thanks and why > Eric Muller wrote: > > Munzir Taha wrote: > > > > >Second, why then Unicode choose some characters like > > parantheses to have two > > >glyphs whereas others like sqrt haven't. What's the point? > > There is a misunderstanding here: the square root character *does* have the > mirrored property, just like parentheses. > > If the RTL glyph is not available for this character, it is a pure font > issue. > > > >Third, I am still searching for the right font but can't > > find it yet. Can you help me? > > > > > The case of square roots is beyond what the mirrored data can handle. > > You really need a combination of layout engine and fonts that > > can work together to achieve this. I know that OpenType does > > not accommodate that today (that's why we need a new feature). > > May be AAT or Graphite already handle this? > > The fact that square root is declared to be "mirrored" by Unicode means > that: > > 1) In an ideal world, all fonts should have *both* the LTR and RTL glyphs > and select the proper one according to the bidi context; > > 2) In a cruel world, any font should have *either* the LTR or the RTL glyph, > whichever is considered more useful by the font designer. > > So an OpenType (ot even TrueType) font designed for Arabic could and should > have a RTL square root right *now*. Of course, it cannot have *also* the LTR > glyph; not until "smart" fonts will be smart enough to handle this. > > Unfortunately, Munzir Taha's question remains: I have looked in all the > Hebrew and Arabic *TrueType* fonts I have, but the square root is either > missing or it is LTR. > > _ Marco > >
