Re: per-paragraph auto-direction, a.k.a. dir=uba

But, unless I misunderstand you, we have the problem I brought up
originally, as in:

<pre dir=uba>

an ltr line (and thus uba paragraph).<input type=button
value="b1" style="margin-start:20px" /><input type=button
value="b2" style="margin-start:20px" />

AN RTL LINE (AND THUS UBA PARAGRAPH).<input type=button
value="B3" style="margin-start:20px" /><input type=button
value="B4" style="margin-start:20px" />

</pre>

B3 and B4 would inherit the CSS direction of their parent, i.e. <pre
dir=uba> element, which would be ltr due to the way its content begins. Will
B3 and B4's margins be on their left or their right? If it's on the left, as
per their CSS direction, they will not do what the author intends, which is
to put a bit of space between the button and what precedes it. And if it's
on the right, the definition of start and end becomes quite esotoric, no
longer depending on the CSS direction, but on the paragraph direction, which
scripts can't even access.

Aharon

On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 12:57 AM, fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net>wrote:

> On 09/01/2010 11:02 AM, Aharon (Vladimir) Lanin wrote:
>
>> I've had sufficient negative feedback on suggesting a new element to
>> kill that idea.
>>
>> So, what do people think of the proposal that there is no restriction on
>> the elements on which dir=uba can appear, but it will act as
>> first-strong (not per-paragraph) on any element that has any child
>> elements, and only work in the per-paragraph mode otherwise?
>>
>
> I suspect this is unnecessarily difficult to implement, because it
> means that partway through processing an element I'd have to go back
> and change whether I'm doing per-paragraph or first-strong.
>
> I think it would make more sense for dir=uba to do first-strong to
> set the nominal direction (that can be selected against, and inherits
> to children) but then do per-paragraph during bidi resolution for
> each paragraph that is directly within the element.
>
> That way, it's defined what happens for children and I don't need
> to recurse the uba settings, but I also don't need to swap behavior
> as soon as someone inserts a <div/>. I just ignore the uba setting
> once I'm in the <div/>.
>
> I *think* that makes more sense. It's pretty consistent with how
> bidi-override behaves, in any case.
>
> ~fantasai
>