Bidirectional Source File Format

When the language is Arabic or Hebrew, the .IPF source file must have one of the following formats:

Implicit

Latin and National (Arabic or Hebrew) characters are arranged in typing order in successive positions of the source file.

Arabic characters should be stored in their base shapes.

Visual - left to right
Characters are stored in an order ready for display or printing
Visual - right to left
The order of the characters is the mirror image of the previous format.

It is possible to specify the format of the source file by adding a special attribute to the "USERDOC" tag, as in the following examples:

   :userdoc text=IMPLICIT.   :userdoc text=VISUAL_LTR.
   :userdoc text=VISUAL_RTL.

If the text attribute is not specified with the "USERDOC" tag, the default is:

   :userdoc text=IMPLICIT.




Another attribute that can be added to the "USERDOC" tag is SWAP. This attribute defines the way symmetric characters (such as '(' and ')', or '<' and '>') are stored in the .IPF file within right-to-left text.

The valid values for the SWAP attribute are:

ON

This indicates that the .IPF source file has been created with symmetric swapping. For example, the 'Open parentheses' character within a right-to-left text is stored as '('. This is the default value for this attribute.
OFF
This indicates that the .IPF source file has been created without symmetric swapping. For example, the 'Open parentheses' character within a right-to-left text is stored as ')'.

Example:

   :userdoc text=IMPLICIT swap=OFF.




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