Why doesn't Thunderbird have native RTL composition capability?
While Hebrew (my specific need) has a version, I have to use the English based version but do need RTL composition at times. I've been using TB for many years and I fail to understand the logic of not incorporating an RTL editor as a native capability, not through add-ons that often don't work well and get discontinued. It's a standard thing and servers 100s of millions around the world who are using TB.
Chosen solution
Really I doubt there are hundreds of millions of folk wanting to use Thunderbird what also need a bi directional editor. Personally I see it as a niche requirement, certainly not as mainstream as a calendar and that also is an add-on.
Perhaps if those 100 million potential users contributed a dollar to the add-on author you would have just what you wanted with lots of chance,
It is easy to ask for change, but Thunderbird is a community project. It has no employees and no actual funds to do anything. I am not aware of any developers that use a RTL language (that is not to say they are not there, because do not pretend to know even a small percentage of the developer community).
Without a volunteer developer that is bugged by the issue it is unlikely to gain traction without a financial sponsor, a sponsor in terms of very large amounts of money. It is not uncommon of a change to cost $100,000 in time for developers mentors code approval and testing.
But this is also a political type hot potato. Thunderbird editor is actually part of code maintained by Mozilla for Firefox. But they have no interest in it other that it's use in web forms. So changes that affect Thunderbird are not a priority in they current plans.. To a large extent fixing the editor may in fact require a wholesale replacement for something like CKEditor so the dependence on Mozilla for fixes and approval of fixes is removed. This is really more of a can of worms than any one individual wants to open as a volunteer.. It could keep a developer employed for quite a long time.
BiDi is not a new problem for Mozilla applications, I encourage you to look at some of the bugs. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=240501
See the dependent and blocking bugs for this meta bug. Once Mozilla fixes these core issues in Firefox, then Thunderbird well get a chance to place user interface ellements to support the fixed handling.
I hope that explains some of it. I do not want to be negative, but it is not something I have seen much movement on in the last five years.
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Chosen Solution
Really I doubt there are hundreds of millions of folk wanting to use Thunderbird what also need a bi directional editor. Personally I see it as a niche requirement, certainly not as mainstream as a calendar and that also is an add-on.
Perhaps if those 100 million potential users contributed a dollar to the add-on author you would have just what you wanted with lots of chance,
It is easy to ask for change, but Thunderbird is a community project. It has no employees and no actual funds to do anything. I am not aware of any developers that use a RTL language (that is not to say they are not there, because do not pretend to know even a small percentage of the developer community).
Without a volunteer developer that is bugged by the issue it is unlikely to gain traction without a financial sponsor, a sponsor in terms of very large amounts of money. It is not uncommon of a change to cost $100,000 in time for developers mentors code approval and testing.
But this is also a political type hot potato. Thunderbird editor is actually part of code maintained by Mozilla for Firefox. But they have no interest in it other that it's use in web forms. So changes that affect Thunderbird are not a priority in they current plans.. To a large extent fixing the editor may in fact require a wholesale replacement for something like CKEditor so the dependence on Mozilla for fixes and approval of fixes is removed. This is really more of a can of worms than any one individual wants to open as a volunteer.. It could keep a developer employed for quite a long time.
BiDi is not a new problem for Mozilla applications, I encourage you to look at some of the bugs. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=240501
See the dependent and blocking bugs for this meta bug. Once Mozilla fixes these core issues in Firefox, then Thunderbird well get a chance to place user interface ellements to support the fixed handling.
I hope that explains some of it. I do not want to be negative, but it is not something I have seen much movement on in the last five years.
Just in case someone discovers this question and is looking for an addon, then try: