Bidirectional (bidi) languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are languages
in which the text is presented to the user ordered from right to left, but
numbers and Latin alphabetic strings within the text are presented left to
right. In addition, the order in which characters appear within program variables
can vary. The text is usually stored in logical order,
the order in which the characters are entered in the input field.
These differences in ordering and in other associated presentation characteristics
require the program to have the ability to convert bi-directional text strings
from one format to another. The bidi conversion attributes are specified in
a bidi conversion table (.bct) file created separately from the program.
The program references the name of the conversion table to indicate how attribute
conversion should be performed.
In all cases, the bidi conversion table reference is specified as the 1
to 8 character file name without the .bct extension. For example, if you
have created a bidi conversion table named mybct.bct, you can set the value
of formConversionTable in a program by adding the following statement at the
beginning of the program:
sysVar.formConversionTable = "mybct.bct" ;
Your tasks are as follows:
- Create bidi conversion tables that specify the transformations that should
occur. Note that different tables are needed for converting data to
be displayed in a text or print form .
- When generating a program that uses text or print forms
with bidi language text, add a statement to the program that assigns the conversion
table name to the system function sysVar.formConversionTable before showing
the form.
You build the bidi conversion table file using the bidi conversion table
wizard plugin, which is in the file BidiConversionTable.zip:
- Download the file BidiConversionTable.zip.
- Unzip the file into your workbench directory
- To begin running the wizard, click File > New > Other > BidiConversionTable.
The
name of a table used with EGL programs must have eight characters or less
and must have the .bct extension.
- While running the wizard, press F1 for help in choosing the correct options
for creating the table.