added support for right to left languages by using

the fribidi library (patch from Ehud Shabtai, thanks!)

SConstruct

@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ opts.Add('PREFIX', 'The install path "prefix"', '/usr/local')
 opts.Add(PathOption('BOOST_INCLUDES', 'Search path for boost include files', '/usr/include'))
 opts.Add(PathOption('BOOST_LIBS', 'Search path for boost library files', '/usr/' + LIBDIR_SCHEMA))
 opts.Add(PathOption('FREETYPE_CONFIG', 'The path to the freetype-config executable.', '/usr/bin/freetype-config'))
+opts.Add(PathOption('FRIBIDI_INCLUDES', 'Search path for fribidi include files', '/usr/include'))
+opts.Add(PathOption('FRIBIDI_LIBS','Search path for fribidi include files','/usr/' + LIBDIR_SCHEMA))
 opts.Add(PathOption('PNG_INCLUDES', 'Search path for libpng include files', '/usr/include'))
 opts.Add(PathOption('PNG_LIBS','Search path for libpng include files','/usr/' + LIBDIR_SCHEMA))
 opts.Add(PathOption('JPEG_INCLUDES', 'Search path for libjpeg include files', '/usr/include'))
@@ -46,6 +48,7 @@ opts.Add(PathOption('PYTHON','Python executable', sys.executable))
 opts.Add(ListOption('INPUT_PLUGINS','Input drivers to include','all',['postgis','shape','raster']))
 opts.Add(ListOption('BINDINGS','Language bindings to build','all',['python']))
 opts.Add('DEBUG', 'Compile a debug version of mapnik', '')
+opts.Add('BIDI', 'BIDI support', '')
 
 env = Environment(ENV=os.environ, options=opts)
 env['LIBDIR_SCHEMA'] = LIBDIR_SCHEMA
@@ -78,6 +81,14 @@ for path in [env['BOOST_LIBS'],
     
 env.ParseConfig(env['FREETYPE_CONFIG'] + ' --libs --cflags')
 
+if env['BIDI']:
+    env.Append(CXXFLAGS = '-DUSE_FRIBIDI')
+    if env['FRIBIDI_INCLUDES'] not in env['CPPPATH']:
+        env['CPPPATH'].append(env['FRIBIDI_INCLUDES'])
+    if env['FRIBIDI_LIBS'] not in env['LIBPATH']:
+        env['CPPPATH'].append(env['FRIBIDI_LIBS'])  
+    env['LIBS'].append('fribidi')
+
 C_LIBSHEADERS = [
     ['m', 'math.h', True],
     ['ltdl', 'ltdl.h', True],
@@ -89,6 +100,8 @@ C_LIBSHEADERS = [
     ['pq', 'libpq-fe.h', False]
 ]
 
+if env['BIDI'] : C_LIBSHEADERS.append(['fribidi','fribidi/fribidi.h',True])
+
 BOOST_LIBSHEADERS = [
     ['thread', 'boost/thread/mutex.hpp', True],
     ['filesystem', 'boost/filesystem/operations.hpp', True],

include/mapnik/unicode.hpp

@@ -26,8 +26,53 @@
 
 #include <string>
 
+#ifdef USE_FRIBIDI
+#include <fribidi/fribidi.h>
+#endif
+
 namespace mapnik {
     
+/*
+** Use FRIBIDI to encode the string.
+** The return value must be freed by the caller.
+*/
+
+#ifdef USE_FRIBIDI
+    inline wchar_t* bidi_string(const wchar_t *logical)
+    {
+        FriBidiCharType base = FRIBIDI_TYPE_ON;
+        size_t len;
+
+        len = wcslen(logical);
+
+        FriBidiChar *visual;
+
+        FriBidiStrIndex *ltov, *vtol;
+        FriBidiLevel *levels;
+        FriBidiStrIndex new_len;
+        fribidi_boolean log2vis;
+        
+        visual = (FriBidiChar *) malloc (sizeof (FriBidiChar) * (len + 1));
+        ltov = 0;
+        vtol = 0;
+        levels = 0;
+
+        /* Create a bidi string. */
+        log2vis = fribidi_log2vis ((FriBidiChar *)logical, len, &base,
+                /* output */
+                visual, ltov, vtol, levels);
+
+        if (!log2vis) {
+            return 0;
+        }
+
+        new_len = len;
+
+        return (wchar_t *)visual;
+    }
+#endif
+
+
     inline std::wstring to_unicode(std::string const& text)
     {
         std::wstring out;
@@ -75,6 +120,12 @@ namespace mapnik {
             }
             out.push_back(wchar_t(code));
         }
+#ifdef USE_FRIBIDI
+        wchar_t *bidi_text = bidi_string(out.c_str());
+        out = bidi_text;
+        free(bidi_text);
+#endif
+        
         return out;
     }
 }