Re: [css2.1] editorial clarification: "case-insensitive" always means "ASCII case-insensitive", y/y?

On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Zack Weinberg <zweinberg@mozilla.com> wrote:
> Section 4.1.3 says
>
>     * All CSS syntax is case-insensitive within the ASCII range (i.e.,
>       [a-z] and [A-Z] are equivalent), except for parts that are not
>       under the control of CSS.
>
> There are four other normative uses of the term "case-insensitive"
> within the standard:
>
> 5.10 ... Pseudo-element and pseudo-class names are case-insensitive.
> 5.11.4 ... The matching of C against the element's language value is
>           performed case-insensitively.
> 7.3 ... Media type names are case-insensitive.
> 18.2 ... these [additional names for color properties] are
>         case-insensitive ...
>
> None of these normative uses are qualified with "within the ASCII
> range".  It is logical to assume that §4.1.3 defines the term, so
> Unicode-aware case normalization is not required anywhere within
> CSS, but conversely, one might argue that whenever not explicitly
> stated, ISO 10646 controls and Unicode-aware case normalization is
> required.  It is easy to construct test cases where this matters: for
> instance,
>
>  body { color: green }
>  @MEDIA PRİNT { body { color: red } }
>
> where the third letter in the media type name is U+0130 CAPITAL LETTER
> I WITH DOT ABOVE.
>
> I propose that this be clarified by adding the sentence "Whenever the
> term 'case-insensitive' is used normatively in this standard, it means
> case-insensitivity within the ASCII range." immediately after what I
> quoted from 4.1.3.  Alternatively, the four normative uses could be
> changed to read "ASCII case-insensitive" or "case-insensitive within
> ASCII".
>
> My own interpretation is that either of these options would be an
> editorial clarification, not a change to the standard; i.e.
> case-insensitivity is already restricted to ASCII throughout.

Agreed that it should be ASCII case-insensitive, and that this feels editorial.

~TJ

Received on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 20:56:27 UTC