GNU bug report logs -
#11016
24.0.94; Right-to-left GUI
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Message #13 received at 11016 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):
> From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
> Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:01:25 +0200
> Cc: 11016 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
>
> starback <at> stp.lingfil.uu.se (Per Starbäck) writes:
>
> > Using a locale with right-to-left writing, for example
> >
> > LANG=ar_EG.utf8 src/emacs-24.0.94.1 -Q
> >
> > I get the menu-bar and the tool-bar in the reverse direction, that is
> > with the Help menu on the left and the File menu on the right, for
> > example.
> > This is a GTK thing. At least with ./configure --with-x-toolkit=motif
> > it's not like this.
Yes, because Emacs is smarter. Various GUI toolkits foolishly reverse
the UI unconditionally based on the locale; Emacs does not. So when
the menu bar and the tool bar are drawn by Emacs, you get the usual
left-to-right UI.
> I agree that it looks a bit odd -- but what do right-to-left users
> expect in these instances? To have the "most important" menu to the
> right or to the left?
Some prefer one, others prefer the other. It should be a separate
user option, because there's no one-fits-all solution, and basing the
solution on the locale is definitely wrong (one can work in a R2L
locale without speaking any R2L language).
And, as the OP correctly points out, it makes no sense to provide a
right-to-left UI when the menus and the labels on the tool-bar buttons
cannot be localized, let alone "speak" the R2L language. Which is the
single most important reason I didn't code such an option back when I
worked on bidi Emacs. You can still see comments to that effect in
xdisp.c.
This bug report was last modified 91 days ago.
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