Subject: lagrange: fribidi and harfbuzz dependencies?
From: Christopher Howard <[email-masked]>
To: Guix Bug Reports <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2021 07:22:18 -0800
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hi, I like the lagrange gemini client, but I have struggled with some
font display issues since I do a publishing with mixed English and
Hebrew words. Lagrange does display Hebrew unicode characters, if you
switch to the selectable "Tinos" font in the preferences, but on my
system, the Hebrew script is displayed in the wrong direction (left-to-
right, instead of right-to-left).

According to the Lagrange github README, Lagrange should be able to
utilize the fribidi and harfbuzz software to properly display these
sorts of scripts, but it does not seem to be doing this in Guix, even
though these packages are available.

I attempted running lagrange inside "guix environment --ad-hoc fribidi
harfbuzz" but the scripts are still displaying backwards, suggesting
that something needs to be modified in the package definition itself to
utilize this software.

Here is a simple gemini test page (contain just a single Hebrew word):

gemini://gem.librehacker.com/gemlog/your-word/test.gmi

On my system, it displays the letters as "bet resh alef" from left to
right, rather than from right to left.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_alphabet#Alphabet

-- 
Christopher Howard
Gemini capsule: gemini://gem.librehacker.com
Web version: https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gem.librehacker.com