Celestial Software

Hi, we are looking for a Telnet terminal emulator that supports bi-directionality and letter-shaping, as we have opportunities to sell our software in countries which use the Arabic script. I downloaded your demo and selected the Win1256 script (in Options Properties Appearance Translation; I also tried ISO-8859-6).

When I set my Windows (XP Prof 5.1 SP 2) Language to Arabic, I then see the Arabic characters when I type in the VMS Host I've Telneted to. However the letters are coming out left to right, and are all in standalone format.

Is there a way to configure Absolute Telnet to handle the left-to-right direction, and also automatically change the letter shape according to its position in the word (initial, medial, final, standalone) the way Windows does? I suspect if the answer is "no", it would be something that would have to be done by the host in the Telnet session.

Thanks!

d.s.

[ May 06, 2008, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: Brian T. Pence ]

Actually, you're in luck! The answer is YES. Absolute can handle RTL text and Arabic shaping. It does so through the use of the FRIBIDI library. There is a button on the toolbar labeled RTL. Press this and you should see the text re-ordered and shaped.

The 'Translation' setting you choose should match the character set of the host. Common choices for you would be ISO-8859-6, Win1256, or UTF8 depending on what character set the host supports.

DISPLAYING Arabic text in Absolute works well when the RTL option is enabled. EDITING text in an editor on the host may be a different matter, depending on what editor you use. If editing is not important, then skip this part.

Scenario one:
Using AbsoluteTelnet RTL and an editor that is not arabic-aware... The editor will assume that the text is visually displayed in a LTR manner, but since it is not, the cursor position will become confused and you'll edit data you did not intend to edit

Scenario two:
Using AbsoluteTelnet RTL and an editor that IS arabic-aware... The editor may reverse the text itself, assuming that the terminal will not. Absolute will then reverse it again, resulting in things being in the wrong order and editing again becomes confused

Scenario three (the solution) :
Use an arabic-aware editor and DISABLE Absolute's RTL. This will allow the editor to set the text order, cursor position, etc.... Editing should work as expected

In any case, I believe there is a workable scenario in there somewhere. I've put a lot of work into Absolute's international text capabilities and the Arabic ordering/shaping was added within the last year or so. Depending on what editor you use, you may have better or worse luck editing text. If you have issues, I'd love to work with you on trying to handle them in the most appropriate way. I don't know Arabic myself, so the capabilities that ARE there have come via requests from users such as yourself.

I look forward to your feedback on the current capabilities.

Regards,

Brian

I've gone back to test the RTL and shaping functions in 6.28 and I've come to realize that the shaping is not working.

Stick with 6.12 until I can track this down:

http://www.celestialsoftware.net/telnet/AbsoluteTelnet6.12.exe

Thx Brian. We tried this and yes, the 6.12 is doing the shaping!
d.s.

Great!

Does it otherwise fit your needs as an arabic-enabled terminal package?

What will you be using it for?

Brian

We are still testing. We have successfully done some basic I/O tests, but now need to look into the specific I/O routines we use in our software, terminal entry and display, and printing of Arabic* characters, and mixed Arabic/Latin.

*Our first market opportunities actually require Farsi/Persian script, which is 90+% Arabic with a few extra letters and symbols. Have you considered adding support for Farsi?

Our software is geared towards the grocery/food warehousing/distribution and production industries. You can find more at:
http://www.digiflex.ca/
Our main host platform uses the VMS operating system, and most of our clients would use Telnet terminal emulators from PC's or Windows terminal sessions.

Dave Sills