[Mono-dev] Complex script / international support in Winforms/libgdiplus

[Jonathan Pobst]

>> I don't
>> have all the formatting options supported yet, but then again, it
>> doesn't look like the current cairo text module does either.
> 
> Right. Only the most "common" formatting options are supported. A few of
> them have some limitations as well.

Another thing we had looked at was implementing Pango in 2.0's 
System.Windows.Forms.TextRenderer instead of going through 
System.Drawing.  (We have an internal version for 1.1, so we don't need 
separate code paths.)

It supports a different set of formatting options that may be easier to 
replicate.

Also, implementing it here would not have the potential to break as much 
existing code, as not as many things use it.  Once it is implemented, 
controls would need to be updated to use this instead of System.Drawing. 
  Updating every control will not be fun, but as you already noticed, 
every control assumes LTR, so they would all have to be changed to 
support RTL anyways.

I'm not saying one approach is better than the other, just another 
option you may wish to consider.  :)

Jonathan