Episode 03: tfeL ot thgiR (Right to Left)
In today’s chatty episode, I’ll talk about why I’m passionate about Right to Left (RTL), the practice in localization to adapt user interfaces to users who use software in languages written from right to left, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu. I’m going to give a background on why languages are written in different directions, how this is implemented technically, and how to apply it to modern user interfaces. I’m not sure if these show notes are super helpful for my listeners, so this episode I’m only going to include citations for my sources, but please leave me a comment if you enjoyed reading these and I’ll go back to writing them up for future episodes.
An example of Greek boustrophedon writing (Source: Wikipedia)
Citations
Cohen, Dotan. Introduction to Typing and Using RTL (Right to Left) Text, and Configuring Software Applications to Support RTL., https://dotancohen.com/howto/rtl_right_to_left.html.
Dictionary.com. “Why Do We Read English from Left to Right?” Thesaurus.com, Thesaurus.com, 30 Mar. 2021, https://www.thesaurus.com/e/writing/righttoleft/.
García, Mercedes. “Right to Left Languages: Why Are Written This Way.” Pangeanic, https://blog.pangeanic.com/right-to-left-languages.
“Locale (Computer Software).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 June 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locale_(computer_software).
Material Design, https://material.io/design/usability/bidirectionality.html#mirroring-layout.
“Mongolian Script.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_script.
“Right-to-Left Mark.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Nov. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-left_mark.
“Right-to-Left vs Left-to-Right.” LingoHub, https://lingohub.com/blog/2012/07/right-to-left-vs-left-to-right.
“Writing System.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_system.
Yumashev, Alex. “If Arabs Read Right-to-Left, Do They See ‘700’ as ‘007’?” Jitbit.com, Jitbit Helpdesk, 10 Sept. 2019, https://www.jitbit.com/alexblog/280-if-arabs-read-right-to-left-do-they-see-700-as-007/.