ال-جنساء

NOTE: I want the slashes to lean forward--that is the top to lean to the left in this rtl context; and to follow the asterisk--that is appear to the left of it in this rtl context; while I want the asterisk to follow -- that is appear to the left of in the rtl text -- the ltr word or phrase it is going to annotate. An easy solution here is just embedding the neutral text with an inline span element to indicate directionality, and since the slash is one character that does not change its direction as a result of the bidi algorithm, choosing a different slahs character. Alas, however, it would also be nice to have a bidi algorithm that would handle the full-stop and closing parentheses at the end of an English run of text. But the full-stop and parentheses do not stick in this case--unlike the asterisk below; and this case is all enclosed in a single block with only one direction of text! (Really why does not the opening parentheses surrounded by strong LTR text signal that there will be a closing parentheses, possibly, and why is not the LTR direction preserved at the end of the strong LTR text in this case, for the closing parentheses?) Browser: ie 7 (have not tried 8 I think the download stuff is strange so have to take my time and do the request myself).

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

1. No markup above!

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

ii. (I got smart and choosed a new way of numbering these runs, avoiding the Arabic numbers); dir set to ltr on the English text only Oops! It does not help!

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

iii. dir set to rtl on the neutral characters adjacent to the English text; dir set to ltr on the English text only Oops!

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

iv. dir set to rtl on the first neutral character--the asterisk only--letting the bidi algorithm handle the following slashes; dir set to ltr on the English text only Oops! Also forgot to align this.

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

v. dir set to rtl on a span element which contains the neutral characters; inside this element is a second span element containing the English words which are set to ltr to override the explicity set rtl directionality--it turns out this is over-doing things; the English words take care of their directionality themselves; see below; by explicitly setting their directionality, I've made the asterisk stick!

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* // كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

vi. Alternately by leaving explicit directionality for the asterisk and the slash, but removing the inner span with directionality, we have the neutral characters in the right order, but facing the wrong way for some reason.

ٳني أرقت فبت ٱلليل ساهرة ('vigil
keep'-'ing')* \\ كآنمآ كحلت عيني بعار

vii. Still by leaving explicit directionality for the asterisk and the forward slash, while removing the inner span with directionality for the words, and by replacing the forward slash / with the back slash \ all looks quite fine I presume the problem with the slashes is that these are used in IDN's and I guess the odd slanting order is fine in those; I use them to indicate line breaks as they were traditionally used prior to the internet we have the neutral characters in the right order, but facing the wrong way for some reason. And do note I had to explicitly set the directionality of this paragraph and in that case only did not have to set the alignment.