For some time I have been trying to write a program on Windows XP which would help me work with Syriac text. It has been quite a dreadful experience, and I am barely started! The problem is finding out how to get one text box in my application to handle text as Right-to-Left Syriac, both display and text entry, while allowing the rest of the application to work as normal. In case anyone else out there is struggling, I have written some notes on how to do it, now I have finally worked out the problem!
http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/RightToLeft_Syriac/right_to_left.htm
The same would apply to any RTL language, such as Hebrew and Arabic. Is Ethiopic RTL, I wonder?