Named Character Entities for BIDI Texts

Glenn Adams (glenn@stonehand.com)
Mon, 24 Apr 95 15:56:05 EDT

Could you please add the following named character entities
as standard HTML3 entities for use by bidirectional text systems.

<!ENTITY zwnj SDATA "[zwnj ]"--=zero width non-joiner-->
<!ENTITY zwj SDATA "[zwj ]"--=zero width joiner-->
<!ENTITY lrm SDATA "[lrm ]"--=left-to-right mark-->
<!ENTITY rlm SDATA "[rlm ]"--=right-to-left mark-->
<!ENTITY lre SDATA "[lre ]"--=left-to-right embedding-->
<!ENTITY rle SDATA "[rle ]"--=right-to-left embedding-->
<!ENTITY pdf SDATA "[pdf ]"--=pop directional formatting-->
<!ENTITY lro SDATA "[lro ]"--=left-to-right override-->
<!ENTITY rlo SDATA "[rlo ]"--=right-to-left override-->

These are defined by ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993 as follows [I've
specified their equivalent numeric character references at the
right]:

0x200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER &#8204;
0x200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER &#8205;
0x200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK &#8206;
0x200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK &#8207;
0x202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING &#8234;
0x202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING &#8235;
0x202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING &#8236;
0x202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE &#8237;
0x202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE &#8238;

These entity references allow full support of the Unicode
bidirectional algorithm and also facilitate compatibility
with Microsoft's BIDI version of Microsoft Word.

Regards,
Glenn Adams