https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=163503

--- Comment #8 from Mike Kaganski <[email protected]> ---
I disagree with NAB. But first, let me quote from bug 164342:

(Mike Kaganski from bug 164342 comment #4)
> I would suggest instead to split the mixed panels into separate "Western
> elements", "Arabic/Persian elements", ... (maybe in the future, there could
> appear more variants - I don't know which cultures use other notation). As a
> proponent of *removal* of the option that disables RTL (and Asian) support,
> I would suggest to not make these elements / panels depend on that option.

(Khaled Hosny from bug 164342 comment #5)
> To be honest, I don’t understand what is the problem here. Do math users use
> every symbol shown in the elements panes? If not, why are the new symbols
> are seen as a problem?
> 
> The reason why I didn’t split the new symbols into there own pane is that
> Arabic math uses other operators like summation and integral, so an Arabic
> math user would need to be jumping between panes needlessly.
> 
> The reason these symbols depend on CTL option is obvious, hiding UI elements
> based on CTL option is bad UX and we need to do less of it not more, and
> support for RTL math does not depend on that option either.

I definitely disagree with idea of hiding features based on language (group).
But I also see how the current situation can be problematic - NB: not only to
"Western" users, but also to Arabic and Persian. There are cultural
differences, reflecting in the formulas, too; and no matter what kind of
formula you are creating, you are *very likely* to only need a subset of
functionality relevant to that culture, and better not have a mix of different
culture elements in one panel.

See the clear difference between:

* We show all math operations on the panel, even though you are likely to use
only a subset of it, because we can't reasonably guess which operations you
would need; and it makes no sense to have a separate panel for each thinkable
set of math operation;

and

* We show Western, Arabic, and Persian stuff on a single panel, even though we
clearly understand, that a user will need to use only one set of these three at
a time.

Having a panel per culture group is perfectly fine. Furthermore, it is
perfectly fine to duplicate some elements on all of these panels, if that makes
sense (some common, culture-independent items) - that is much better than the
idea that "we must not duplicate anything, and therefore we create a single
unusable panel, so that any user can find everything on it, at the cost of ease
of use".

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