Re: 22 July Teleconference - Minutes

Hi all,

A quick addendum to my comments in the meeting today while fresh in my 
mind...

I read the ruby related discussion on github that Mathew provided links 
to and played around with <ruby> with the resulting clarifications (for 
me, anyway):

1) <ruby> supports five or more annotations - I think it is effectively 
unlimited but I stopped at five - and just stacks them above and below 
the base text.

2) One of the discussions goes into at least two or three different 
types of ruby. So there is precedent for overloading the <ruby> element 
for different purposes.

3) The case I mentioned is valid but since WWII the usage of Chinese 
characters (kanji) has been discouraged with the adoption of a phonetic 
based script (kana) so has the issue has become less common.

4) <ruby> annotations present problems for text-to-speech systems. This 
would be even worse for Bliss codes but the obvious solution would be 
that T2S would just ignore the symbol annotations.

5) The Mozilla developer guide specifically states (my italic-bold for 
emphasis):

The <ruby> HTML element represents small annotations that are rendered 
above, below, or next to base text, */usually/* used for showing the 
pronunciation of East Asian characters. /*It can also be used for 
annotating other kinds of text*/, but this usage is less common.

i.e. they are already there.

So I withdraw my dissenting opinion that this would be better handled 
with a separate element. It is just an annotation with a different role 
and if <ruby> just means annotation as opposed to Japanese annotation, 
then everything is hunky dory. There does not appear to be any danger of 
collisions happening although I haven't tested all browsers. The spec 
certainly does not put a limit on the number of entries allowed.

It's probably still a good idea for us to discuss the other option when 
in order to get consensus with the internationalization group, though.

Russell



On 2025-07-22 11:24, Lionel Wolberger wrote:
>
> Hi Task Force,
>
> Minutes of today's meeting are here, 
> https://www.w3.org/2025/07/22-adapt-minutes.html
>
> See you next week,
>
> Lionel
>
>
> --
> Lionel Wolberger, Ph.D.
> VP Business Operations
> Level Access
> https://levelaccess.com
> https://userway.org