Not trying to be sarcastic, but by moving it to GE. This is not even close to an R1 thing. Seriously - internationalization is *hard* and needs to be super well thought out, so this is a very good topic. And GE is the place to have it. >hehehe, excellent, provoked a good intellectual response! > >I'd agree with your points here, OBOS crew, how do we deal with this? > >Regards, >Matt > >> >> Well, perhaps each language should have "orientation" and >> "direction" options associated with it, and a base unicode font. >> >> As far as I know, there are only three orientations used: >> >> left->right (eg most indo-european languages, mod. japanese) >> right->left (most semitic languages) >> top->bottom (mod. japanese, chinese, some forms of devenagri?) >> >> Three directions are used (this is the direction the "carriage >> return" sends the newline). >> >> Horizontal orientations always produce top->bottom. >> Vertically-oriented languages produce: >> >> right->left (modern japanese) >> left->right >> >> Book right->left cover/left->right cover then, depend on the >> orientation >> for horizontal languages, and the direction for vertical languages. >> >> languages can have multiple orientation/direction options. In >> japanese, >> literature and social sciences are produced vertically while >> physical sciences and mathematics tend to the more western, left-> >> right >> orientation. >> >> Menu bars are all ready for horizontal orientation choices -- it >> would >> suffice to just make, for example, hebrew menu choices go reverse, >> and >> right-justified. There maybe should be an option for vertical menu >> writing (they certainly exist in windows - just click the start bar), >> this >> would maybe help out some vertically-oriented languages, though >> detecting >> the language option and implementing a vertical menu would still be >> the >> purview of the programmer. >> >> do we want to include a provision for boustrophedonic writing (a la >> easter >> island, or the infamous florida punch-cards?) >> >> Isaac >> >> > > > >