In the pre-release version of LibreOffice 5.3, we see HarfBuzz arriving as the standard library for the rendering of complex texts (like Devanagari). Good news.

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/5.3#Text_Layout_Engine

Thanks to Akash Jain and Khaled Hosny (who is also deeply involved in supporting XeTeX).

Professor Dominik Wujastyk

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity

Department of History and Classics

University of Alberta, Canada

South Asia at the U of A:

sas.ualberta.ca