[html] Issue: make any element with an explicit lang attribute (and no dir attribute) bidi-isolated by default marked as i18n

r12a has just labeled an issue for https://github.com/w3c/html as 
"i18n":

== make any element with an explicit lang attribute (and no dir 
attribute) bidi-isolated by default  ==
Moved from Bugzilla: 
https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18490

> This idea came to me while editing Wikipedia, which is a massively 
multilingual site.
>
> An element that has an explicitly defined lang attribute can also 
have different directionality from the enclosing element. Even more so
 for any element that has an explicit dir attribute. It is also likely
 that an element with a different directionality should be 
bidi-isolated using <bdi> or "unicode-bidi: isolate".
>
> Therefore, bidi isolation should be the default for such elements. 
Of course, it should be possible to override it if that's what the 
user wants.

---

> IMO, this is the correct approach for new pages. (In fact, I would 
even say unicode-bidi:isolate for elements with the dir attribute, and
 unicode-bidi:plaintext for elements with the lang attribute but 
lacking dir.) And in fact it is easy to do that in your (new) page's 
own CSS. However, one has to keep in mind that isolation is not 
implemented in IE9, and may or may not be implemented in the final 
release of IE10. So, if you need to have your page work bidi-wise for 
a high percentage of users, this just isn't good enough, not for a 
long while yet. :-(
>
> The other major concern here is backward compatibility. That is why 
I said above "new" pages. Applying bidi isolation to all elements with
 the dir attribute *will* break some existing pages.
>
> On the other hand, my guess is that applying bidi isolation to 
something with the lang attribute (and lacking a dir attribute) is 
unlikely to break existing pages, so it is probably a good idea.

@amire80 

See https://github.com/w3c/html/issues/226

Received on Tuesday, 3 May 2016 12:09:45 UTC