unity-design team mailing list archive

[Haggai Eran <haggai.eran@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

First let me start by saying that I love the Unity desktop, especially the
recent features that are geared towards advanced users, like the HUD, and I
hope to see it continue succeeding.

I wanted to write about the current state of Unity and Unity2D with respect
to right to left languages. As you may know, some languages, such as Arabic
and Hebrew are written from right to left. It is common for GUIs localized
to these languages to have a user interface which mirrors the English
version, so that elements that are on the left side in English would be
aligned to the right. Some elements in the Unity desktop make this
requirement more important than usual, like the panel menu bar, since
reading a menu bar backwards can be somewhat confusing.

While Unity2D has gained very good mirroring support since Ubuntu 11.10,
which includes the dash, the launcher, and the panel, Unity was left
behind. It is not impossible to use Unity in a right-to-left language, as
text rendering works correctly, but the is no mirroring implemented, so
menus are rendered in reverse, the launcher is left aligned, and the dash
is also reversed.

Because of the current situation, Shachar Or has suggested that in Precise
the default version of Unity for users of right to left languages will be
Unity2D [1]. I think this might be a good idea. Unity has its advantages
over Unity2D, in terms of its visuals and its latest features, but the
mirroring can be very important to some users.  I wanted to start a
discussion here, and hear other people's opinions on this matter.

I see several options here:
1. Fallback to Unity2D when using an RTL language, perhaps using the same
mechanism that is used to choose Unity2D on hardware that doesn't support
Unity. Advanced users override this using an environment variable, or some
other mechanism.
2. Change the default desktop in Lightdm under RTL to Unity2D after
upgrade, and for new users, but allow the user to switch by choosing the
other version in Lightdm.
3. Leave Unity as the default. In this case the release notes should
probably mention the differences between the versions, so that users are
aware of their options.

In any case, I hope that no matter what workaround solution is chosen,
Unity will gain right to left mirroring as well, and I'd be happy to take
part in such an effort.

Best regards,
Haggai Eran

[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2012-March/034892.html