BidiMode

From Lazarus wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

Some languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi ...) write the characters from the right to the left, and adequate support for this must be implemented on Lazarus.

BidiMode

 bdLeftToRight
 bdRightToLeft
 bdRightToLeftNoAlign
 bdRightToLeftReadingOnly
bdLeftToRight

Default of BidiMode, mean read and order is normal "Left To Right"

bdRightToLeft

Makes a control Right To Left reading text and right alignment depend a kind of the control,

In Delphi if there is Alignment property effect by reverse taLeft to taRight and vise versa, but in Lazarus we will reverse the alignment with FlipControls function, that make more consistency with Anchors and Align properties. Also bdRightToLeft take a Scrollbar at the Left and if there is a Cells or Menus must ordered from the Right.

 For Example
 in bdLeftToRight:
   Menu1, Menu2, Menu2
 in bdRightToLeft: 
   Menu3, Menu2, Menu1

That mean not just a Right Alignment it is Right To Left Order. bdRightToLeft must effect the text reading as depend on the OS if it is supported, the sentence words take as like Cells

 in bdLeftToRight:
   Word1 Word2 Word2
 in bdRightToLeft: 
   Word3 Word2 Word1

We are reading the Word1 first then Word2, We read from the Right to Left, but Draw Text is more complicated than normal Cells, in fact the function that Draw the text care about English/Latin words and draw it Left To Right, so if we mixed both languages in the same sentence the draw function drawing continual English words by Left To Right order to make it more readable, but a symbols like as ? or ! considered as Right To Left characters.

For testing purpose i used English word with a symbol to test Right To Left text reading

Like as Word?

For special states or in fact for more compatibly with Delphi there is another values

bdRightToLeftNoAlign

It is right to left but except Alignment property not reversed, but in Lazarus worked when use FlipControls

bdRightToLeftReadingOnly

It is right to left text reading only, scrollbar and alignment is not take effect.

ParentBidiMode

If it is True the control inherit BidiMode value from the parent.

BidiMode for developers

When you build you own controls and try make your control support the right to left or BidiMode, you must not access the BiDiMode property directly, you must use

 function UseRightToLeftAlignment: Boolean; virtual;
 function UseRightToLeftReading: Boolean; virtual;
 function UseRightToLeftScrollBar: Boolean;
 function IsRightToLeft: Boolean;

Because some controls not need to make effect to the alignment for example TButton it always is centered , or TMainMenu it always take Right align if it Right To left.


Not just reading the words and cells, it is every thing depend on the order (positions), for application there is a Menus and Controls that placed on the form it must have position from the right.

Sample 1

Add BidiMode support to LCL components

Most of OS now support RightToLeft but there is controls not supported yet or there is controls make by native language like as (TLabel, TGrid). so we have 3 kinds of control

  1. Standard Controls: it easy to make it just add some flag to switch it to RightToLeft (TEdit, TList, TComboBox, TCheckBox).
  2. Standard Controls not supported in OS: There is no idea just waiting the OS developers to implement it to support (TListView, TTreeView), or use native controls already support it.
  3. Native Controls: more hard work for make it Support RightToLeft, or we must add new control already have this features (TLabel, TGrid).

Add BidiMode property to TControl

TBidiMode already declaired in Classes <delphi>

 property BiDiMode: TBiDiMode read FBiDiMode write SetBiDiMode stored IsBiDiModeStored;
 property ParentBiDiMode: Boolean read FParentBiDiMode write SetParentBiDiMode default True;

</delphi>

BidiMode must not stored if ParentBidiMode = True <delphi>

 function TControl.IsBiDiModeStored: Boolean;
 begin
   Result := not ParentBiDiMode;
 end;

</delphi>

Override BidiMode functions <delphi>

 function IsRightToLeft:Boolean; override;
 function UseRightToLeftAlignment: Boolean; override;
 function UseRightToLeftReading: Boolean; override;
 function UseRightToLeftScrollBar: Boolean; override;

</delphi>

 BiDiMode property in public and must published in every control need to RightToLeft

Bidi Controls Road Map

GTK2 You must build LCL with OPT=-dGTK2 OPT=-dGTK_2_8


Component win32 gtk2 carbon qt wince cocoa
TForm Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TLabel Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TButton Working Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TEdit Working Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TListBox Working Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TComboBox Working Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TCheckBox Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TStaticText Working Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TGroupBox Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TRadioButton Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
Menus Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TBitBtn Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TSpeedBtn Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TRadioGroup Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TCheckGroup Working Working Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented
TGrid Partially Implemented Partially Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented Not Implemented

Functions and Utils useful for multi language application

 FlipControls; virtual;
 Change Right to Left and Left to Right in this properties (Left, Align, Anchors and Alignment)

How to test RightToLeft reading

Create new form, then add TButton or TEdit set the caption to OK? you must add ? or ! or . to the last word with out space, now set the BidiMode to bdRightToLeft, you will see the ? in the left of word.


References

http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/

Design and Implementation of a Win32 Text Editor