Kate & bidi

[Lars Knoll]

> I have invested some time in figuring out how to get Kate to do bidi...
> it's not going to be that hard in the end, but just deciding which way to
> go at the implementation level will be the key, including which bits to use
> qt for and which bits to re-implement ourselves.  I have a feeling that the
> easiest implementation (using qt functions) will not be the fastest :(

My tip is to wait until Qt-3.2. I've rewritten a lot of the Qt internals, and 
speed should not be an issue (when using Qt correctly). An issue you will get 
in addition is that Qt-3.2 will start supporting indic languages (Hindi etc.) 
which will add another level of complexity to text layout and editing. 

It took me 3-4 months of full time work to get all these language issues 
sorted out, and I would really advise you against trying to implement it on 
your own. 

Qt 3.2 will have some API for doing correct text layouting and cursor 
positioning for all languages. Using this API should make an implementation 
rather straightforward. 

I am willing to help getting support for complex writing systems into the KDE 
input widgets (I think this is mainly kate and kword) once the first 3.2 beta 
is out.

Lars