Re: Bidirectional text and URLs

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

> Can we please take a step back and try to identify the real problem
> here?  What exactly are we trying to detect and handle?  Is it true
> that we are trying to detect URLs whose characters got their "normal"
> bidirectional properties overridden by some directional control
> characters?  If so, I can write a primitive that will take a region of
> buffer text and examine it to detect this.

Oh, great.  My impression was that such functionality was off the table.

> Next, given that you have detected the spoofed URL, what do you want
> to do with it?  Do you want to highlight it, do you want to de-spoof
> (i.e. undo the spoofing) in some way, but still leave some indication
> of the fact that it was spoofed, or maybe you want to remove any trace
> of the spoofing as if it never happened (and leave the user oblivious
> to the fact it did)?

Yes, I want to unspoof the URL.  Adding some markings to notify that
this has been done would also be nice, perhaps by adding a 'warning face
to the text or the like.

> Given the answers to those questions, there's any number of possible
> solutions that do NOT require inserting more directional controls.
> Some of the possible solutions were already mentioned in this thread.
> Here's another: cover the offending RLO with a display property
> showing whatever you want -- a warning sign, a smiley, a string made
> of a SPC character, anything.  You can try it with your example: you
> will see the spoofing gone immediately.  Why is this worse than
> inserting directional controls whose effect on the surrounding text
> can be far reaching?

RLOs are used legitimately, and I think they display you've selected for
them now (a thin blank line) is good.  So I don't want to uglify mail
mode buffers just to handle this quite obscure URL UI problem.  I mean,
why shouldn't ‮people be able to‬ do this if they want to in a smooth way?
(Ok, bad example, but these overrides are used legitimately in the bidi
community, if I understand my extensive research correctly.)

And displaying ‮http://myspace.com/#/segami/moc.koobecaf//:sptth‬ with a
couple of visible control characters doesn't really solve the problem,
because most people will still assume that that's a link to Facebook,
not to Myspace.  Most people are not even aware that this bidi stuff
exists.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no