Re: ::first-word pseudo-element

Pierre Bertet wrote:

> But the ::first-letter already do this, defining a "letter", wich is
> not very clear too. To clarify this, the CSS3 Selectors spec refers to
> the Unicode Standard Annex #29 [1].
> This document seems very complex to me, but it also contains a “Word
> Boundaries” section, which seems to defines exactly that.

> So my questions are:
> This section could it not be used to clarify what a “word” is?

The extensive caveats in the notes to that section of TUS Annex #29 
would need to be taken into account. Word boundary identification needs 
to be tailored for many languages, and the basic Unicode mechanism only 
aims to provide 'as workable a default as possible'.

Words -- and syllables, which present similar issues for selecting 
appropriate text elements for styling -- are units of spoken language 
that may or may not be easily isolated as units in written language, 
depending on particular writing systems as applied to particular 
languages. In some systems, e.g. Thai, word selection is only possible 
with dictionary support.


JH

Received on Saturday, 11 December 2010 21:29:22 UTC