National Language Support Guide and Reference

Bidirectional Input Method

The Bidirectional Input Method (BIM) is similar to the Single-Byte Input Method except that it is customized to process the Arabic and Hebrew keyboards. BIM also links the Hebrew and Arabic states to the Latin states. The Alt+Right Shift keys allow the user to toggle between the Arabic/Hebrew and Latin language layers. The use of these keys is derived from BIM. The features of BIM are as follows:

Supports Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin states
Supports the ISO8859-6, ISO8859-8, IBM-1046, and IBM-856 code sets
Performs diacritical composing

Keymaps

The following keymaps are supported on BIM:

ar_AA.ISO8859-6.imkeymap
ar_AA@alt.ISO8859-6.imkeymap
Ar_AA.IBM-1046.imkeymap
Ar_AA@alt.IBM-1046.imkeymap
iw_IL.ISO8859-8.imkeymap
iw_IL@alt.ISO8859-8.imkeymap
Iw_IL.IBM-856.imkeymap
Iw_IL@alt.IBM-856.imkeymap

Key Settings

The following key settings are supported on BIM:

scr-rev()	Reverses the screen orientation and sets the keyboard layer to the default language of the new orientation.
ltr-lang()	Enables the Latin keyboard layer.
rtl-lang()	Enables the Arabic/Hebrew keyboard layer.
col-mod()	Enables the column heading adjustment, which handles each word as a separate column.
auto-push()	Toggles the Autopush mode, which handles mixed left-to-right and right-to-left text. When you enable the Autopush mode, reversed segments are automatically initiated and terminated according to the entered character or the selected language layer. Thus, you are relieved of manually invoking the Push function.
chg-push()	Toggles the Push mode. This mode causes the cursor to remain in its position and pushes the typed characters in the direction opposed to the field direction.
shp-in()	Shapes Arabic characters in their initial forms.
shp-is()	Shapes Arabic characters in their isolated forms.
shp-p()	Shapes Arabic characters in their passthru forms.
shp-asd()	Shapes Arabic characters in their automatic forms.
shp-m()	Shapes Arabic characters in their middle forms.
shp-f()	Shapes Arabic characters in their final forms.

Modifiers

The following modifiers are supported on BIM:

ShiftMask	0x01
LockMask	0x02
ControlMask	0x04
Mod1Mask (Left-Alt)	0x08
Mod2Mask (Right-Alt)	0x10