Bidirectional domain names

• US 7,996,207 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Atkin, Steven Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Armstrong; Angela A
• Application Number:
  US09/891,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20030110021A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,696 Days
• Field of Search: 704/2, 704/8, 704/277, 704/1, 715/536
• US Class Current: 704/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/454 Multi-language systems; Localisation; Internationalisation

Abstract

A multilingual bidirectional domain name is produced by receiving a domain name having characters from at least two character sets with different display orders with just one direction of reading; breaking domain name into labels delimited by a full stop punctuation marks, the labels having an original label display order as encountered from left to right; within a label, resolving display directions of indeterminate display order characters by assigning a strong reading direction left-to-right display order to each indeterminate display order character; subsequently, reordering the characters within each of the labels into a display order using the fully resolved characters while preserving the original label display order and wherein bidirectionality of characters within each label is produced, so that produced the multilingual bidirectional domain name contains at least two different directions of reading across the entire converted address; and, displaying the multilingual bidirectional domain name on a computer display.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for converting a multilingual unidirectional domain name to a multilingual bidirectional domain name, the method comprising:

receiving into a computer storage memory a multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address, the unidirectional World Wide Web address comprising a Uniform Resource Locator or a domain name and comprising characters from at least two character sets having at least two different display orders, wherein the multilingual unidirectional address comprises more than one natural language but only one direction of reading across the entire received address;

breaking by a computer the unidirectional World Wide Web entire address into a plurality of labels delimited by a pre-determined full stop punctuation mark between the labels, the labels having an original label display order as encountered from left to right, the labels containing a plurality of characters wherein each character has a determinate display order or an indeterminate display order, the full stop punctuation mark excluding a hyphen-minus character;

within at least one of the plurality of labels, performing inferencing through resolving display directions of indeterminate display order characters by assigning a strong reading direction left-to-right display order to each indeterminate display order character;

subsequent to the resolving, converting the multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address to a multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address by reordering by a computer the characters within each the label into a display order using the fully resolved characters previously inferenced wherein the original label display order is preserved and bidirectionality of characters within each label is produced, wherein the multilingual bidirectional address contains at least two different directions of reading across the entire converted address; and

displaying the multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address on a computer display.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the inferencing comprises:

first, assigning a right-to-left direction to Arabic and Hebrew letters;

second, assigning a left-to-right direction to full stop characters and other alphabetic characters;

third, resolving the directions of digits; and

fourth, resolving the directions of hyphen-minus characters.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein the resolving directions of digits comprises:

assigning a right-to-left direction to Arabic numerals; and

assigning a left-to-right direction to European numerals, unless a European numeral is surrounded by right-to-left characters such as Arabic or Hebrew letters, in which case assigning a right-to-left direction.

4. The method as set forth in claim 2 wherein the resolving directions of hyphen-minus characters comprises:

assigning a left-to-right direction to all hyphen-minus characters which are not surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left; and

assigning a right-to-left direction to all hyphen-minus characters which are surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pre-determined full stop punctuation mark used as a delimiter between the labels comprises a Latin period punctuation mark.

6. A computer readable storage memory comprising:

a computer storage memory suitable for encoding computer programs; and

one or more computer programs encoded by the computer memory storage, the computer program;

receiving into a computer storage memory a multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address, the unidirectional World Wide Web address comprising a Uniform Resource Locator or a domain name and comprising characters from at least two character sets having at least two different display orders, wherein the multilingual unidirectional address comprises more than one natural language but only one direction of reading across the entire received address;

breaking by a computer the unidirectional World Wide Web entire address into a plurality of labels delimited by pre-determined full stop punctuation mark between the labels, the labels having an original label display order as encountered from left to right, the labels containing a plurality of characters wherein each character has a determinate display order or an indeterminate display order, the full stop punctuation mark excluding a hyphen-minus character;

within at least one of the plurality of labels, performing inferencing through resolving display directions of indeterminate display order characters by assigning a strong direction left-to-right display order to each indeterminate display order character;

subsequent to the resolving, converting the multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address to a multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address by reordering by a computer the characters within each the label into a display order using the fully resolved characters previously inferenced wherein the original label display order is preserved and bidirectionality of characters within each label is produced, wherein the multilingual bidirectional address contains at least two different directions of reading across the entire converted address; and

displaying the multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address on a computer display.

7. The computer readable storage memory as set forth in claim 6 wherein the inferencing comprises:

first, assigning a right-to-left direction to Arabic and Hebrew letters;

second, assigning a left-to-right direction to full stop characters and other alphabetic characters;

third, resolving the directions of digits; and

fourth, resolving the directions of hyphen-minus characters.

8. The computer readable memory as set forth in claim 7 wherein the resolving directions of digits comprises:

assigning a right-to-left direction to Arabic numerals; and

assigning a left-to-right direction to European numerals, unless a European numeral is surrounded by right-to-left characters such as Arabic or Hebrew letters, in which case assigning a right-to-left direction.

9. The computer readable memory as set forth in claim 7 wherein the resolving directions of hyphen-minus characters comprises:

assigning a left-to-right direction to all hyphen-minus characters which are not surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left; and

assigning a right-to-left direction to all hyphen-minus characters which are surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left.

10. The computer-readable memory as set forth in claim 6 wherein the pre-determined full stop punctuation mark used as a delimiter between the labels comprises a Latin period punctuation mark.

11. A system which converts a unidirectional domain name to a bidirectional domain name comprising:

a computer platform having a central processing unit for performing logical processes;

an input portion of the computing platform receiving into a computer storage memory a multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address, the unidirectional World Wide Web address comprising a Uniform Resource Locator or a domain name and comprising characters from at least two character sets having at least two different display orders, wherein the multilingual unidirectional address comprises more than one natural language but only one direction of reading across the entire received address;

a label definer portion of the computer platform breaking the unidirectional World Wide Web entire address into a plurality of labels delimited by pre-determined full stop punctuation mark between the labels, the labels having an original label display order as encountered from left to right, the labels containing a plurality of characters wherein each character has a determinate display order or an indeterminate display order, the full stop punctuation mark excluding a hyphen-minus character;

an inferencer portion of the computing platform performing within at least one of the plurality of labels inferencing through resolving display directions of indeterminate display order characters by assigning a strong direction left-to-right display order to each indeterminate display order character;

a character reorderer portion of the computing platform converting subsequent to the resolving the multilingual unidirectional World Wide Web address to a multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address by reordering by a computer the characters within each the label into a display order using the fully resolved characters previously inferenced wherein the original label display order is preserved and bidirectionality of characters within each label is produced, wherein the multilingual bidirectional address contains at least two different directions of reading across the entire converted address; and

a user display portion of the computing platform displaying the multilingual bidirectional World Wide Web address on a computer display.

12. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the inferencer comprises:

a first direction assignor assigning a right-to-left direction to Arabic and Hebrew letters;

a second direction assignor assigning a left-to-right direction to full stop characters and other alphabetic characters;

a third direction assignor resolving the directions of digits; and

a fourth direction assignor for resolving the directions of hyphen-minus characters.

13. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the third direction assignor comprises:

a right-to-left direction assignor operative on Arabic numerals, and for all European numerals which are surrounded by right-to-left characters such as Arabic and Hebrew letters; and

a left-to-right direction assignor operative on European numerals which are not surrounded by right-to-left characters such as Arabic or Hebrew letters.

14. The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein the fourth direction assignor comprises:

a left-to-right direction assignor for hyphen-minus characters which are not surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left; and

a right-to-left direction assignor for hyphen-minus characters which are surrounded by characters whose direction is right-to-left.

15. The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein the pre-determined full stop punctuation mark used as a delimiter between the labels comprises a Latin period punctuation mark.