Bug#212962: What is being done to offer RTL, BIDI and Shaping support

[Anmar Oueja <anmar@canada.com>]

After much discussion I believe there are two ways we can approach the 
solution:

1. Hack Newt for now to pipe all output through bidi and some custom 
written shaping code (should be simple to do). this requires intimiate 
knowlege of Newt and fribidi. Currently the .lb LUG is looking into it. 
They might do it they might not. depending on their schedule. (will find 
out later next week).

2. There is a tool called bicon (we are in the process of modifying its 
license) to include it in debian tree. This tools manages to do bidi and 
shaping and sits between the console and the applications running in the 
console. the theory is if we ran it before running the d-i then we 
should see all arabic text correctly without touching Newt or anything 
else. This is the best options but require the following points addressed:
  a. Test bicon with d-i first.
  b. Measure the willingness of the developers to adopt running it 
before running d-i.

I will update this bug with the path we have decided to take to resolve it.

Anmar