Re: an errata and BiDi text printing ToDo

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- Munzir Taha <munzirtaha at newhorizons dot com dot sa> wrote:
> In the Arabic-HowTo at 
>
http://www.arabeyes.org/download/documents/howto/arabic-howto-en/printinarabic.html
> 
> let me quote this:
> 
> ------------------
> You can also use TrueType fonts,
> 
> $ txtbdf2ps.pl -UTF-8 \
>                -bidi \
>                -font=/PATH/PATH/PATH/font.ttf \
>                -text=arabic_file > output.ps
> ------------------
> 
> txtbdf2ps.pl doesn't seem to support this option. May be you have
> confused it with uniprint which has the -font truetype-font option!!

I've never used uniprint and what is noted there for 'txtbdf2ps'
is correct (not sure what 'option' you are talking about).

> I also want to point out that with this correction I can't understand
> why we are missing anything in the BiDi printing ToDo at arabeyes wiki
> page.
> 
> I _can_ use the command line to print text files using lpr (uniprint will
> call lpr) as in my example

We'd like to add native support (toggle-able) to key applications namely
lp/lpr/enscript.  Uniprint it seems does its own filtering and I'd go so
far as to suggest we include that filtering into the applications of
concern (or similar).

> If we have one tool that will do a job perfectly well, we should never run 
> after the 100's other tools (a2ps, txt2ps, text2ps, texttops, ascii2ps ...) 
> to patch them to do the already can be done job.

That's a matter of opinion.  The more options we have the better.  You
might not like enscript while someone else might use it exclusively.  As
for porting "all" applications - well, that is simply not doable.  We'll
try to port the more common and fundamental ones (along with ones we tend
to use and are interested in - ie. if you like a2ps and use it alot then
start working on it ;-)

> Again, is there any deficiency in printing BiDi text whether from
> the command line or from an application if the correct tool is used?

There is unless you use an external filter and/or a hack.  We're after
clean application built-in native support.

Salam.

 - Nadim

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