Proposed text for reopening HTML5 bug 10830 (support for <rb> element) [I18N-ACTION-68]

All,

I am proposing that we use the following text (plus any edits you suggest) to reopen HTML5 bug 10830 [1]. This bug has to do with support for the <rb> element. Let's discuss tomorrow.

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This is a response on behalf of the I18N WG. In Comment 19, the editor rejected this change, citing the need for a feature that makes <rb> useful. The CJK community and our own observation suggest that the <rb> tag is widely used by content and widely supported by current and legacy browsers. We therefore feel that it is contrary to general interoperability and backwards compatibility to not include it in HTML5 as requested.

Non-IE browsers support the <rb> tag, including Firefox, Safari (WebKit), Chrome, Opera, etc. In addition, IE9 provides support for the tag. Older IE implementations did, indeed, not implement <rb>, but are not impaired by its presence. 

One important "feature" the <rb> element provides is the ability to style ruby base text as distinct from the matching ruby text.

We agree that <rb> is not required in order to implement basic ruby markup in HTML5 documents and that it should be an *optional* element. However, there is general consensus on the part of the Japanese community that it is desirable to preserve this element. We would therefore like to request that you restore the <rb> element as optional markup identifying the ruby base text inside a <ruby> tag sequence.
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Addison

[1] http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10830



Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect (Lab126)
Chair (W3C I18N WG)

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.

Received on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 04:32:10 UTC