cursor movement in right-to-left mode

Nir Nagid

Hi everyone,

Arrow key navigation seems to be defined so that right arrow always moves the cursor FORWARD. This is counter-intuitive in RTL mode, as “forward” is now in the LEFT direction, and all other programs I know work that way. Would the developers consider changing this? In the meantime, can anyone help with a workaround? I.e. can the arrow keys be mapped differently for RTL and LTR modes?

Thank you very much,
Nir

Claudia Frank

@Nir-Nagid

you could do it with a python script

_g = globals()                                                                  # global variable used to check status
if not _g.get('SWITCHED_TO_RTL'):                                               # if variable not defined yet,
    SWITCHED_TO_RTL = False 

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

def main():                                                                     # main function to handle start/stop behavior
    global SWITCHED_TO_RTL                                                      # assining to global variable
    if SWITCHED_TO_RTL:                                                         # if currently in RTL mode
        SWITCHED_TO_RTL = False                                                 #   set flag to False
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT,2306)                                    #   and remap arrow and
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT,2304)                                     #   left arrow key to default                                                    
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.EDIT_LTR)                               #   change view mode back to LTR
    else:                                                                       # else
        SWITCHED_TO_RTL = True                                                  #   set the flag to true
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT,2304)                                    #   and remap arrow and
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT,2306)                                     #   left arrow key         
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.EDIT_RTL)                               #   change view mode to LTR
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
        
main()

When running the script for the first time it remaps the left and right arrow key and changes the view to RTL,
next run would reverse the changes.

Cheers
Claudia

Nir Nagid

Thank you very much Claudia, but I since realized the problem goes deeper (or is the following a separate problem?). The “push” mechanism for RTL languages in LTR mode is a bit screwy. Here’s an example: make sure you’re in LTR mode; on a blank line, enter “א”, space, “1”; on anther, enter “1”, space, “א”. Both lines look the same: “1 א” :(.

Also, if you select the first letter in the first line, it LOOKS like the 1 is selected, but cut’n’paste it, and you’ll find the “real” first char, “א”, is the one that was selected.

Developers? Workaround? Any other insights?

Thank you,
Nir

DaveyD

I’ve been working with this problem for years now… Never found a workaround - I’d love it if there was, however, it seems like most programs have this problem. Microsoft Word is one of the only programs that deal with this excellently!

Claudia Frank

@Nir-Nagid

I think this is a problem of some of the lexers because if I try to do it and having python as language set it doesn’t happen.
But if I have normal text as language, then it happens. You can workaround it by defining an empty udl and use it as “YOUR_NORMAL_TEXT”.

Btw I guess there is a need to have more shortcuts reassigned. The once, I think, are useful are

_g = globals()                                                                      # global variable used to check status
if not _g.get('SWITCHED_TO_RTL'):                                                   # if variable not defined yet,
    SWITCHED_TO_RTL = False 

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

def main():                                                                         # main function to handle start/stop behavior
    global SWITCHED_TO_RTL                                                          # assining to global variable
    if SWITCHED_TO_RTL:                                                             # if currently in RTL mode
        SWITCHED_TO_RTL = False                                                     #   set flag to False (default)
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT, 2304)                                        #   char left                                                    
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT << 16), 2305)                 #   char left extend
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.ALT << 16), 2428)    #   char left rect extend
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2308)                  #   word left
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2309)   #   word left extend
        
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT, 2306)                                       #   char right
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT << 16), 2307)                #   char right extend
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.ALT << 16), 2429)   #   char right rect extend
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2310)                 #   word right
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2311)  #   word right extend
        
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.EDIT_LTR)                                   #   change view mode back to LTR
    else:                                                                           # else
        SWITCHED_TO_RTL = True                                                      #   set the flag to true (RTL mode)
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT, 2304)                                       #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT << 16), 2305)                #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.ALT << 16), 2428)   #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2308)                 #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.RIGHT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2309)  #   
        
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT, 2306)                                        #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT << 16), 2307)                 #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.ALT << 16), 2429)    #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2310)                  #   
        editor.assignCmdKey(KEYS.LEFT + (KEYMOD.SHIFT + KEYMOD.CTRL << 16), 2311)   #         
        notepad.menuCommand(MENUCOMMAND.EDIT_RTL)                                   #   change view mode to RTL
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
        
main()

Cheers
Claudia

Yaron

Hello all,

@Claudia,
Welcome back. :)

And thanks for the script.
Two comments:

editor1 and editor2 if you want to apply the keys to both views.
Ctrl + (reassigned) Arrow does not work properly when using a RTL language in LTR mode (and vice versa).

@Nir,
Scintilla does not fully support RTL. We should raise the issue there more frequently.

@Davey,
EditPad is quite a good editor which fully supports RTL and bidi.
You can set the behavior of the left/right arrows in Options -> Configure File Types -> Editor Options -> Default text layout -> Edit.
(I use the PRO version).

InsertText

Best regards.

DaveyD

@Yaron,
Hi and thanks for the suggestion.
My problem is that I am referring to coding - i.e., in my code I have Hebrew text (e.g. messages, dialogs etc.) and it’s extremely difficult to work with!
So, since I use n++ for coding (as I developed a custom syntax using UDL2 as well as functions hints and function list), using editPad is not really relevant in my case… unless there’s more there than I expect… :)

Thanks,
David

Yaron

Hello David,

You’re welcome.

NPP is undoubtedly a great editor. Combining Latin and Hebrew, however, is much easier with EditPad.
It is a developer editor and you can set a custom syntax highlight.

I use a toolbar button in both editors to open the current file (and line) in the other editor.

In NPP:
<Command name="פתח ב- EditPad..." Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="no" Key="0">"C:\Program Files\EditPad Pro\EditPadPro7.exe" "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" /l$(CURRENT_LINE)</Command>

and in EditPad:
"C:\Program Files\Notepad++\NP\notepad++.exe" "%FILE%" -n%LINE%.

Best regards.