Dictionary English-French-Arabic with glossaries package

Question

Using the glossaries package under polyglossia, I adapt the sample file presenting the English and French dictionaries sample-lang.tex to my use for the 3 languages. The result is what I want, without some details. I want to print my glossaries in twocolumn mode and this is not possible for all the three. I can do this for the latin languages (english and french) with the option twocolumn... \documentclass[twocolumn]{article} and the command \LTRdblcolumn. Note that the main language is arabic. For the arabic glossary, I use the multicol package. I give the 3 glossaries obtained:

I give the tex file which produces these glossaries:

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
%\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usepackage{geometry}
 \geometry{paperwidth=165mm, paperheight=235mm}
\geometry{hmargin=2.5cm,vmargin=2.5cm,headheight=14pt,includefoot} 

\usepackage[nomain,nonumberlist]{glossaries}

%Remove the dot at the end of glossary descriptions
\renewcommand*{\glspostdescription}{}


% Define the 3 glossaries glg: english order, flg: french order, alg: arabic order
\newglossary[glg]{english}{gls}{glo}{English Entries}
\newglossary[flg]{french}{flx}{flo}{{\selectlanguage{french}Termes Français}}
\newglossary[alg]{arabic}{alx}{alo}{\RL{المفردات العربية}\vspace*{3mm}}

%Activate glossary commands
\makeglossaries

%These commands sort the 3 lists in command prompt
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.glg -o filename.gls filename.glo
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.alg -o filename.alx filename.alo
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.flg -o filename.flx filename.flo

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%   Packages of the languages    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setotherlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{french}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2,AutoFakeSlant=-0.02]{Traditional Arabic}
\newfontfamily\englishfont[Scale=1]{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\frenchfont[Scale=1]{Times New Roman}
\setmonofont{Courier New}
\let\arabicfonttt\ttfamily
\setsansfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.5]{Traditional Arabic}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ORGANIZATION OF ENTRIES FOR GLOSSARIES
%%  GLOSSARY WORDS IN 6 ENTRIES 
%%  THE FIRST ONE #1 IS ARABIC  USED FOR SORTING THE ARABIC ENTRIES
%%  THE SECOND ONE #2 IS ARABIC AND CONTAINS THE ARABIC ENTRY
%%  THE THIRD ONE #3 IS ENGLISH  USED FOR SORTING THE ENGLISH ENTRIES
%%  THE FOURTH ONE #4 IS ENGLISH AND CONTAINS THE ENGLISH ENTRY
%%  THE FIFTH ONE #5 IS FRENCH  USED FOR SORTING THE FRENCH ENTRIES
%%  THE SIXTH ONE #6 IS FRENCH AND CONTAINS THE FRENCH ENTRY

%%% THE OPTION name={} SUPPRESSES THE ENTRY IN THE GLOSSARY...INCLUDED BY HAND IN THE TABULAR

\newcommand*{\newword}[6]{%
   \newglossaryentry{en-#3}{type=english,name={},sort={#3},
   description={%
   \begin{tabular}{p{5 cm}}
           \hline
   \\   \vspace*{-5mm}
   \textbf{#4}
   \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{french}\textit{Fr:} #6}
    \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
     {\selectlanguage{arabic}
      \aemph{عربي}:     
      #2}
   \end{tabular}
   \vspace*{-5mm}
    }}%
   \newglossaryentry{fr-#3}{type=french,name={},text={#6},sort={#5},
   description={%
     \begin{tabular}{p{5 cm}}
                \hline 
    \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{french} \textbf{#6}}
     \\   \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{english}\textit{Eng:} #4}
     \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{arabic}
    \RL{ 
      \aemph{عربي}:     
      #2}
      \vspace*{-5mm}
     }
   \end{tabular}
   \vspace*{-5mm}
   }
   }%
   \newglossaryentry{ar-#3}{type=arabic,name={},text={#2},sort={#1},
   description={
         \vspace*{-5mm}
         \begin{tabular}{p{5.2 cm}}
          \hline
    \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
       \textbf{#2}
    \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{english}\textit{Eng:} #4}
    \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{french}\textit{Fr:} #6}
    \end{tabular}
    }}%
                    }
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  END GLOSSARIES

%%%%%%%%%%%%%           ENTRIES
\newword{دالةمتصلة}{دالة متصلة}{ContinuousFunction}{Continuous Function}{FonctionContinue}{Fonction Continue}
\newword{متباينةبوول}{متباينة بوول}{BoolesInequality}{Boole's Inequality}{InegalitedeBoole}{Inégalité de Boole}
\newword{فراغعينة}{فراغ العيّنة}{SampleSpace}{Sample Space}{Universdeprobabilite}{Univers de probabilit\'e}

\begin{document}

 \gls{en-ContinuousFunction} \gls{fr-ContinuousFunction} \gls{ar-ContinuousFunction}
 \gls{en-BoolesInequality} \gls{fr-BoolesInequality} \gls{ar-BoolesInequality}
 \gls{en-SampleSpace} \gls{fr-SampleSpace} \gls{ar-SampleSpace}

\selectlanguage{english}
 \LTRdblcol

\printglossary[type=english]

%%\newpage
\selectlanguage{french}
\LTRdblcol
\printglossary[type=french]

\newpage
\RTLdblcol
\selectlanguage{arabic}
\begin{multicols}{2}[]
\printglossary[type=arabic]
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

Now, my questions are:

1/ How can I solve this problem of the twocolumning in the same file for english and arabic glossary ?

2/ Are the commands I use good for my purpose ? Is there a more "elegant" and mostly robust method for this ?

Answer 1

I give a .tex file I used to produce an acceptable solution:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{titleps}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usepackage{geometry}
 \geometry{paperwidth=165mm, paperheight=235mm}
\geometry{hmargin=2.5cm,vmargin=2.5cm,headheight=14pt,includefoot} 

\usepackage[nomain,nonumberlist]{glossaries}
%%\usepackage[entrycounter,nomain,nonumberlist]{glossaries}

%Remove the dot at the end of glossary descriptions
\renewcommand*{\glspostdescription}{}


% Define the 3 glossaries glg: english order, flg: french order, alg: arabic order
\newglossary[glg]{english}{gls}{glo}{English Entries}
\newglossary[flg]{french}{flx}{flo}{{\selectlanguage{french}Termes Français}}
\newglossary[alg]{arabic}{alx}{alo}{\RL{المفردات العربية}\vspace*{10mm}}

%Activate glossary commands
\makeglossaries

%These commands sort the 3 lists, on command prompt
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.glg -o filename.gls filename.glo
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.alg -o filename.alx filename.alo
%makeindex -s filename.ist -t filename.flg -o filename.flx filename.flo

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%   Commands used for the languages
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage[numerals=maghrib]{arabic}
\setotherlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{french}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.2,AutoFakeSlant=-0.02]{Traditional Arabic}
\newfontfamily\englishfont[Scale=1]{Times New Roman}
\newfontfamily\frenchfont[Scale=1]{Times New Roman}
\setmonofont{Courier New}
%%%\setmonofont{DejaVu Sans Mono}
\let\arabicfonttt\ttfamily
\setsansfont[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.5]{Traditional Arabic}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%






%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ORGANIZE ENTRIES AND GLOSSARIES
\newcommand*{\newword}[6]{%
   \newglossaryentry{en-#3}{type=english,name={},sort={#3},
   description={%
   \begin{tabular}{p{5 cm}}
           \hline
  \\   \vspace*{-5mm}
   \textbf{#4}
   \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
{\selectlanguage{french}\textit{Fr:} #6}
    \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
     {\selectlanguage{arabic}
      \aemph{عربي}:     
      #2}
   \end{tabular}
   \vspace*{-5mm}
               }
                            }%
    \newglossaryentry{fr-#3}{type=french,name={},text={#6},sort={#5},
   description={%
     \begin{tabular}{p{5 cm}}
                \hline 
\\ \vspace*{-5mm}
{\selectlanguage{french} \textbf{#6}}
     \\   \vspace*{-5mm}
 {\selectlanguage{english}\textit{Eng:} #4}
    \\  \vspace*{-5mm}
    {\selectlanguage{arabic}
    \RL{ 
      \aemph{عربي}:     
      #2
     }
      \vspace*{-5mm}
     }
   \end{tabular}
   \vspace*{-5mm}
   }
                           }%
 \newglossaryentry{ar-#3}{type=arabic,name={},text={#2},sort={#1},
   description={
         \vspace*{-5mm}
         \begin{tabular}{p{5.2 cm}}
          \hline
\\ \vspace*{-5mm}
       \textbf{#2}
   \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
 {\selectlanguage{english}\textit{Eng:} #4}
   \\ \vspace*{-5mm}
{\selectlanguage{french}\textit{Fr:} #6   
}
    \end{tabular}
   }
                            }%
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%  END GLOSSARIES

%% Here is the file of data entries
\input{Entries_Dic_AEF.tex}


\newpagestyle{Dictionary}{
  \setheadrule{0pt}% Header rule
%  \setfootrule{0.4pt}% Header rule
    \renewcommand{\makefootrule}{\rule[\baselineskip]{\linewidth}{0.4pt}}
  \setfoot[]% even left
    [\thepage]% even centre
    []% even right
    {}% odd left
    {\thepage}% odd centre
    {}% odd right
} 

\begin{document}
\pagestyle{Dictionary}



%% Here is the file of glossary data entries
\input{Entries_GLS_Dic_AEF}




%% The english dictionnary
%\selectlanguage{english}
%\title{Dictionary of mathematical terms}
%\author{English-French-Arabic}
%\date{}
%%%\maketitle
% \LTRdblcol
%\printglossary[type=english]

%% The french dictionnary
%\selectlanguage{french}
%\title{Lexique des termes mathématiques}
%\author{Français-Anglais-Arabe}
%\date{}
%%%\maketitle
%\LTRdblcol
%\printglossary[type=french]


%% The arabic dictionnary
\newpage
\title{معجم مصطلحات الرياضيات}
\author{عربي-انجليزي-فرنسي}
\date{}
%%%\maketitle
\RTLdblcol
\selectlanguage{arabic}
\begin{multicols}{2}[]
\printglossary[type=arabic]
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

which uses the following file of data entries Entries_Dic_AEF.tex :

\newword{دالةمتصلة}{دالة متصلة}{continuousFunction}{continuous function}{fonctionContinue}{fonction continue}
\newword{متباينةبوول}{متباينة بوول}{boolesInequality}{Boole's inequality}{inegalitedeBoole}{inégalité de Boole}
\newword{متباينة}{متباينة}{inequality}{inequality}{inegalite}{inégalité}
\newword{قانونإحتواءالإبعاد}{قانون الإحتواء-الإبعاد}{inclusionExclusionIdentity}{inclusion-exclusion Identity}{inclusionExclusionEgalite}{inclusion-Exclusion, Egalité}

and the following file of glossary data entries, Entries_GLS_Dic_AEF.tex:

\gls{en-continuousFunction}\gls{en-boolesInequality}\gls{en-inequality}\gls{en-inclusionExclusionIdentity}

\gls{fr-continuousFunction}\gls{fr-boolesInequality}\gls{fr-inequality}\gls{fr-inclusionExclusionIdentity}

\gls{ar-continuousFunction}\gls{ar-boolesInequality}\gls{ar-inequality}\gls{ar-inclusionExclusionIdentity}

Note that my files contain much more entries, and that I can post it if any !

Now I use this file to produce the dictionnary in the three languages separately, by commenting the two other commands languages, in each language. (Here in the .tex file, I produce the arabic dictionnary)...