Problem with direction of text for Arabic RTL language. [36908460]

Obsolete

Bug

[AOSP] duplicate

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

vi...@gmail.com

created issue #1

Jul 20, 2009 11:11AM

Summary: Problem with the direction of the text while displaying for
Arabic language(Right to left).

Description:

Android code version you are running: 1.5 cupcake release 1

Your development environment: linux Desktop

Describe the problem:
I have modified the Skia & icu4u source code to add support for Arabic
font at system level, When I used the same to display same using TextView
& EditText I couldn't get it from Right to left, instead it was displaying
the Arabic text from Left to right, In order to add arabic text I've also
an Arabic IME of my own, with exact uni-code mappings as required by the
standard.

Steps to reproduce: using the madifications I've done
1.Open notepad, and longpress on the edit field, select input method
as arabic from the pop-upmenu
2.Write some thing in the EditText field using Arabic IME.

Expected results: The arabic text should be displayed from Right to
left.

Observed results:The arabic text is being displayed from left to right.

Additional information:My font file is Unicaode compatible and the
same problem occurs if I use a textview and diplay some arabic string from
my Strings.XML

Comments

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #2Jul 20, 2009 02:05PM

Kindly find the screen shot of the said problem

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ro...@gtempaccount.com <ro...@gtempaccount.com> #3Jul 20, 2009 03:46PM

Hi,

Unfortunately RTL is currently not supported.

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #4Jul 21, 2009 03:10AM

Hi,

Thanks for a prompt reply :), but I did the same experiment with hebrew(RTL) also but
in that case all the labels and text was from Right to left, I even tried some hebrew
string from my XML strings file to a textview and every thing worked fine. But I
didn't observe the same for ARabic and Urdu.

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #5Jul 21, 2009 04:29AM

kindly find the Hebrew screen shot as an attachment, also observe the right
orientation of the text and Labels.

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fi...@gmail.com <fi...@gmail.com> #6Aug 5, 2009 03:24AM

Looking at the first screen shot for the Arabic text, I have to say that the Android
screen is closer to what's expected than what's displayed from the XML file. The
Android screen shows the Arabic letters in the correct order from right to left, but
it suffers mainly from the lack of proper joining (arabic letter typically have
different variations based on the next letters that they might be joined to).

There must be other developers who are interested in adding real RTL Arabic support
to Android, so what are the next steps that we have to follow in order to: 1) get
this feature into scope, and 2) start helping in implementing it?

va...@gmail.com <va...@gmail.com> #7Oct 13, 2009 04:13AM

Hi Vikram,
How do I add the Hebrew Language in the Locale list of the settings.

I Guess if I use the Locale methods the changes the language, the language change
will be specific for only the application.

Is there a way to specify Hebrew as the language with which the Android phone
boots?, provided I have the Hebrew fonts and resource file.

Any help on this is very much appreciated

li...@gmail.com <li...@gmail.com> #8Nov 6, 2009 06:42AM

firass.shehadeh,

I'm afraid this is more difficutl than that.

There is a patch that grabs the characters as they are sent to be displayed, and both
reorders and shapes them. It works if you just want some Arabic support on your
phone, but is the wrong fix to be committed into the code.

In the code, the current BiDi architecture in Android is severely lacking, and cannot
handle some very simple not-so-corner cases (such as digits inside a right to left
context).

So what needs to be done is to pull the current code out, and redesign a new one
based on the existing API set (StaticLayout and DynamicLayout). This is not a trivial
task. I was hoping to get around to it, but I lack the free time to do it in my spare
time and the funding to do it as part of my day job. As things stand, we are where we
are.

Shachar

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #9Nov 6, 2009 08:24AM

well Shachar I've already fixed it in my code base and every thing is working fine.
Got bored of waiting for these guys to fix it :(.

li...@gmail.com <li...@gmail.com> #10Nov 6, 2009 08:59AM

Care to share your solution?

Shachar

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #11Nov 6, 2009 09:03AM

Can't do it pal..I've been chained by NDA(non-disclosure act) by the ppl I work for,
hence I stopped writing on the topic too, I think you remember the Arabic
localization one on Google groups... :(

na...@gmail.com <na...@gmail.com> #12Dec 9, 2009 04:52AM

I'm a htc hero user and lack of Arabic is making me lose the interest in the
Android. I hope they will fix the problem.

bl...@gmail.com <bl...@gmail.com> #13Dec 22, 2009 09:50PM

We like HTC devices & I have HTC hero its perfect Except for Arabic Support And the arabic support from
Windows Mobile & iphone is very good
So please don't force us to go there
make android the perfect system
Thanks.

kr...@gmail.com <kr...@gmail.com> #14Dec 23, 2009 01:01PM

please arabic

f....@gmail.com <f....@gmail.com> #15Dec 23, 2009 02:07PM

It is not hard to support Arabic for Google.
Thousands or millions of Arabic People they are waiting for you and I am sure if they
can speak or write English they will write for you.
WE love Android system and google also.

So please we need your support.

Best Rgards,

mf...@gmail.com <mf...@gmail.com> #16Dec 23, 2009 04:21PM

HTC-Egypt is selling HTC Magic here with Arabic support
So I don't think it's that hard to implement

al...@gmail.com <al...@gmail.com> #17Dec 23, 2009 05:23PM

please support Arabic Language

al...@gmail.com <al...@gmail.com> #18Dec 24, 2009 07:28AM

plz support arabic language arabic language

al...@gmail.com <al...@gmail.com> #19Dec 25, 2009 07:13AM

please support Arabic language .

ma...@gmail.com <ma...@gmail.com> #20Jan 3, 2010 05:10PM

We need Arabic Support in Android

na...@gmail.com <na...@gmail.com> #21Jan 4, 2010 06:48AM

We need Arabic Support in Android

em...@googlemail.com <em...@googlemail.com> #22Jan 9, 2010 04:33PM

Everyone caring about Arabic support on Android, please star the following issue:

Issue 36911628

: Arabic language support
Link :

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=5597

Thanks

mo...@google.com <mo...@google.com> #23May 22, 2010 02:58AM

Duplicate of

issue 36911628

mh...@gmail.com <mh...@gmail.com> #24Aug 30, 2010 06:03AM

FarsiTel is iranian distribution of android that supports farsi and other RTL languages properly, iranian can but google can't!

sa...@google.com <sa...@google.com> #25Apr 24, 2020 12:57PM

Status: Won't Fix (Obsolete)

Thank you for your feedback. We assure you that we are doing our best to address the issue reported, however our product team has shifted work priority that doesn't include this issue. For now, we will be closing the issue as won't fix obsolete. If this issue currently still exists, we request that you log a new issue along with latest bug report here

https://goo.gl/TbMiIO.