Hi WINE-devel list (cross posted to Linux-IL),
After a lively discussion in the Israeli Linux users mailing list, it appears that the best solution will be to give a command line (or config) option to use an external library (fribidi) for the RTL rendering. I would still implement this internally, as the extrenal library is more Unicode and less Windows complient, but that's besides the point.
Adding a ./configure option to do so would probably be quite feasable (I don't know how to do it at the moment, but I am sure that will not be the disqualifying factor), but I have been quite hesitant to go that way until now, for the following reasons: A. Fribidi will have to be present during building WINE. That, in itself, is not a majour obstacle, but B. Having Fribidi present during compile will add Fribidi to the WINE dependancies.
I am afraid that the consequence of B will be that no packager in his right mind will use that option. As that works in direct contradiction to the reason I entered the WINE project to begin with, I am trying to opt for a better solution. I'm seeing two possible solutions to this problem: A. If Fribidi was present during compile, check for its existance during run time. If not present, don't enable the run time option. or B. Copy (port?) Fribidi into the WINE code. It's LGPL, so the license does allow that.
The consequence of B is that I will need to keep an eye on Fribidi, and keep it up to date whenever something changes there. I am very reluctant to do so. I would much rather go for the "A" solution. The problem is that I know how to do this in Windows, but not in Linux. Any help anyone can offer me?
Shachar