lout for Hebrew

[Efraim Yawitz]

Here is a little hack I did to simulate right-to-left filling (for
Hebrew) with lout.  It changes the definitions of the "m" and
"s" PostScript operators which are defined in the lout prolog to
"reflect" the text across the page and flip each individual word. The
advantage is that it does not touch the C code of Lout at all, and seems
to do fine with simple documents.  I haven't tried anything complex yet,
and I'm sure it will behave unexpectedly with rotation.  Numbers will
probably also come out backwards.
I'm including the mydefs file where I define @RLFill and @LRFill (to go
back to normal behavior), as well as an example.  (For those who don't
read Hebrew, it is about checking dried figs for bugs.)  The example shows
the same paragraph successively in right-left, left-right, etc.  It also
illustrates a problem which I am trying to figure out how to deal with,
i.e., the fact that at the start of each page, "m" and "s" are redefined
to their normal values by the real prolog, so the right-left paragraph at
the end of page 1 turned back into left-right at the top of page 2.  I
imagine the way to deal with this is with some kind of @PrependGraphic,
but it's starting to sound complicated, and I would love to hear some
suggestions about the right way to do it.
I also am including the font and metrics I used for the example, although
the principle should work with any font (with no kerning data in the
metrics, since the "k" operator destroys the whole effect.)    

Best Wishes,

Efraim Yawitz

heblout.tar.gz
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