Re: [platform-swt-dev] SWT Bidi Text Support

["Lynne Kues/RAL/OTI" <Lynne_Kues@xxxxxxx>]

Adrian,

In response to a few things below:

- In the R2.0 stream BidiText has been renamed to BidiUtil (sorry about any confusion that caused you).
- BidiUtil is on all platforms so that your code will compile, but the class actually only does something on Win32.
- I'm not sure what the plans are for Java 1.4 and Eclipse.  You might try posting the question to the newsgroup. 

Lynne

stori@xxxxxxxxxx Sent by: platform-swt-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx 11/19/01 10:57 AM Please respond to platform-swt-dev

To:        platform-swt-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx         cc:                 Subject:        Re: [platform-swt-dev] SWT Bidi Text Support

>> Lynne:  Currently SWT includes an internal class,
org.eclipse.swt.internal.
>> BidiUtil, which wraps the Win32 bidi platform calls (specifically -
>> GetCharacterPlacement, GetFontLanguageInfo, ExtTextOut,
GetKeyboardLayout,
>> GetKeyboardLayoutList).  This class is used by the
org.eclipse.swt.custom.
>> StyledText widget to provide bidi support.  The class is internal
because
>> it is only a Windows solution.  This class does nothing on the other
>> platforms that SWT supports. That said, you may use BidiUtil.

This is an acceptable temporary solution.  I was afraid the plugin class
loader would prevent me from using an 'internal' class, but this is
apparently no longer the case.  I didn't yet look at R2.0 (R1.0 has
BidiText, not BidiUtil).  I hope the class indeed exists in the Linux
release of Eclipse too (even if it does nothing), so my plugin can compile
on either platform, and so no platform-specific class-manipulations are
needed at runtime.

>> Lynne:  BidiUtil will supply you with what you need except for detection
of
>> RTL environment.  You can look at the current code page using System.
>> getProperty("file encoding") to determine this.

Yes, that's what I planned to do - only activate the bidi code when the
native locale is bidi.  I guess a full Unicode text solution should handle
any language characters at any time, but this easy/better-performing
solution is definitely enough for programmers (the customers of my text
widget)...

>> Lynne:  Until we investigate a multi-platform solution, we are not in
the position
>> to make any of the bidi API truly public (i.e., supported and
maintained).

It would be nice if Java SDK 1.4's bidi classes are sufficient for the
support of bidi that both StyledText and my plugin require.  My AWT/Swing
version of the text-widget (mostly common code with the SWT version) could
then use the same code.  Any idea when Eclipse will switch to 1.4?  Are
those JDK bidi classes sufficient (on first look, in your opinion)??

>> Lynne:  If you decide to use BidiUtil, we can certainly answer questions
for you,
>> discuss the issues we ran into, etc..  It would also be useful to get
your
>> feedback as to what you (or anyone for that matter) think API for bidi
support
>> should look like.

Thank you.  I'll surely 'bug' you on the subject when I start the
implementation.

Adrian.

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