bidi.nvim

Bidirectional (bidi) text support in neovim.

Introduction

bidi.nvim aims to be a simple, easy-to-configure, and lightweight plugin which adds a bidirectional display mode to neovim on a per-buffer basis.

Note

I no longer use neovim, so I won't be adding any extra features to this plugin. You may want to use a more reliable bidi plugin by @dlyongemallo.

Dependencies

Required

• Neovim
• GNU FriBidi
• A terminal/GUI with bidi capabilities disabled¹

Optional

• A good font for multi-lingual typing. I recommend Cousine or GNU FreeMono.

Configuration

-- Default plugin options
local default_opts = {
  create_user_commands = true, -- Generate user commands to enable and disable bidi-mode
  default_base_direction = 'LR', -- Options: 'LR' and 'RL'
  intuitive_delete = true, -- Swap <DEL> and <BS> when using a keymap contra base direction
}

Installation

Use any standard neovim-compatible plugin manager. Then add somewhere in your init.lua:

-- Either
require("bidi").setup()

-- Or (if you want to customize options)
require("bidi").setup({
  create_user_commands = false,
})

Usage

Warning

This plugin replaces the canonical Unicode codepoints for Arabic-script characters with their presentation forms when enabled. This can affect functionality such as searching and sorting. The codepoints are converted back when the plugin is disabled, but the round-trip may be lossy. Furthermore, Unicode bidi control characters may be lost during the conversion in either direction. I would recommend backing up important documents beforehand. See Issue#13 for more information.

Toggle Bidi-Mode

Use :BidiEnable <base direction> to enable Bidi-Mode. The base direction is case insensitive.

" Example: Enable RTL Bidi-Mode
:BidiEnable RL

" Or
:BidiEnable rl

If no base direction is supplied (:BidiEnable), Bidi-Mode will activate using the default base direction.

Use :BidiDisable to disable Bidi-Mode.

Paste bidi'd contents using :BidiPaste

Paste in Bidi-Mode with :BidiPaste. For example,

" Paste from register `b`
:BidiPaste b

You can also assign :BidiPaste to a keymap by using its lua function:

-- You can specify a buffer to use OR pass in `nil`,
-- which will ask for a register.
vim.keymap.set('n', '<leader>bp', function() require('bidi').paste(nil), {})

Sometimes content will be out of sync with the rest of the bidi'd buffer. To correct this, delete the contents to a register and paste using :BidiPaste.

Statusline Indicator

I highly recommend adding this to your statusline so that you know when Bidi-Mode is enabled and in what base direction. It will display LR (LTR) or RL (RTL) depending on the base direction you choose. Add the following to your statusline:

%!luaeval('require("bidi").buf_get_bidi_mode(vim.api.nvim_win_get_buf(0))')

-- For example (if ALL you want is the Bidi-Mode status)
vim.o.statusline = [[%!luaeval('require("bidi").buf_get_bidi_mode(vim.api.nvim_win_get_buf(0))')]]

Roadmap

Below is a simple roadmap, more or less in the order I plan to add functionality.

• ✅ GNU FriBidi piping (0c5861a)
• ✅ Bidi-Mode toggleability (331de66)
• ✅ Bidi-Mode statusline option (dcba4df)
• ✅ Manually choose base direction (5b16429)
• ✅ Save files only in logical mode (85b77d2)
• ✅ Switch to revins automatically (83ca8a8)
• ✅ Paste in properly in Bidi-Mode (8fc5741)
• ❌ Dynamic padding for RTL paragraphs (see issue #8)
• ✅ Ability to use exclusively in rightleft mode (5b16429)
• ❌ Extensive testing framework

Testing

There is an init.lua in /test. It can also be used as a MWE.

Footnotes

1. Alacritty cannot render Hebrew diacritical marks properly for fonts with those characters (issue #3830), so I recommend choosing another terminal if you want to see niqqud and te'amim. ↩