Re: I18n comment: defining letter

Hi,

On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 02:35:09 +0900, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 ishida@w3.org wrote:
>>
>> There should be a definition of what constitutes a 'letter'. We propose
>> that this should be the first *grapheme cluster* (after any punctuation
>> such as you list).
>>
>> We believe that the specification must, as a minimum, require a letter
>> to be defined as a 'default grapheme cluster', as defined by Unicode
>> http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/#Grapheme_Cluster_Boundaries
>> [http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/#Grapheme_Cluster_Boundaries] .
>>
>> This would mean, for example, that 0065: e LATIN SMALL LETTER E + 0301:
>> ́ COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT would be handled appropriately.
>>
>> The specification should then also state that implementors should
>> implement additional rules based on the language of the text where
>> necesssary.
>>
>> This may be particularly important for scripts such as those of south
>> asia, where an initial character appears as part of a syllabic group and
>> may be preceded on the display by a later character, or where the
>> initial character is a ligature.
>>
>> The i18n WG will make some attempts toinvestigate further the
>> applicability of ::first-letter styling to other scripts and report
>> back.
>
> The working group discussed this and decided to reject your request. We  
> do
> not believe that specifying this in more detail is particularly useful;
> the :first-letter rendering is intended to be left largely up to the user
> agent, based on per-language rules.
>
> Please let us know if this, as is likely, does not satisfy your request.
>

The i18n core working group is not satisfied with your reply. Even if you  
don't supply implementation guidelines for handling of grapheme clusters,  
we would propose that you mention them as a feasible unit and refer to the  
UAX# 29 http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/ .
Regards, Felix

Received on Wednesday, 1 February 2006 04:09:54 UTC