[XeTeX] bidi and fontspec

[Gildas Hamel]

* Skriv a reas maxwell (maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu):
  |>  I believe I've run into a bug in the interaction of fontspec and bidi in
  |>  the 2016 TeXLive distribution.  However, it appears to be so simple to
  |>  trigger that I'm wondering whether it's something I'm doing.
  |>  
  |>  The WME is:
  |>  ------------
  |>  \documentclass{report}
  |>  \usepackage{fontspec}
  |>  \usepackage{bidi}
  |>  
  |>  \begin{document}
  |>  The number 12. The number 34.56. Some more text.
  |>  \end{document}
  |>  ------------
  |>  
  |>  The result of running xelatex on the above is the text:
  |>  ------------
  |>  The number .12 The number .56.34 Some more text.
  |>  ------------


I ran into the same problem and noticed it in the numbering of footnotes and lists. The solution for now, according to Ulrike Fischer, is to add

\makeatletter\@Latintrue\makeatother
to the polyglossia language settings,
because "bidi tests for \if at Latin, so you can get around the problem by setting it to true."

See:
http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/312874/polyglossia-or-bidi-bug-d-gets-inverted-to-d/312881#312881
--Gildas