Using "textwrap" package for unwrappable languages (Japanese)

[Peter J. Holzer]

On 2023-08-30 11:32:02 +0000, c.buhtz--- via Python-list wrote:
> I do use "textwrap" package to wrap longer texts passages. Works well with
> English.
> But the source string used is translated via gettext before it is wrapped.
> 
> Using languages like Japanese or Chinese would IMHO result in unwrapped
> text. Japanese rules do allow to break a line nearly where ever you want.
> 
> How can I handle it with "textwrap"?
> 
> At runtime I don't know which language is really used. So I'm not able to
> decide using "textwrap" or just inserting "\n" every 65 characters.

I don't have a solution but want to add another caveat: Japanese
characters are usually double-width. So (unless your line length is 130
characters for English) you would want to add that line break every 32
characters. (unicodedata.east_asian_width() seems to be the canonical
name to find the width of a character, but it returns a code (like 'W'
or 'Na') not a number.)

        hp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | Story must make more sense than reality.
|_|_) |                    |
| |   | hjp at hjp.at         |    -- Charles Stross, "Creative writing
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ |       challenge!"
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