Arabic typography rendering faces massive technical debt

Hot take: The failure of major web browsers to correctly justify Arabic text is a systemic deprioritization of non-Latin languages, showing how global digital infrastructure relies on unpaid volunteers because it doesn't directly drive corporate ad revenue.

* The web relies on Latin-centric assumptions, forcing a cursive, shaping-based script like Arabic to fit spacing-based layout engines.

* The Bidirectional Algorithm (UAX #9) introduces subtle bugs for weak characters like digits and punctuation, causing common issues such as inverted phone numbers.

* OpenType's jstf table, designed in the nineties to negotiate justification, remains in a perpetual standoff with no browser engines supporting it and few typefaces shipping it.

* Vital tools like the Amiri font and HarfBuzz are passion projects of individual developers, exposing the fragility of non-Latin digital typography infrastructure.