Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-text] Should zero width space break Arabic shaping? (#3861)

The (proposed) response suggests that they "Respond to Elika, informing them that the UTC declines to change the General_Category of U+200B Zero Width Space". But AIUI, Elika's report did not specifically ask for the General_Category to be changed; it only queried the Arabic shaping behavior.

I believe our concern here would be adequately addressed by just adding an entry for ZWSP to ArabicShaping.txt, assigning it joining type U (rather than the default T for characters of General Category Cf. At the point (16 years ago) when ZWSP was changed from GC=Zs to GC=Cf, it doesn't look like Arabic joining behavior was considered.

The primary use for ZWSP, I think, is to control the provision of potentialLineBreakPositions within long strings of otherwise-unbreakable text (e.g. in paths, or in [scriptio continua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptio_continua) writing systems), where it means, more or less, "word boundary with no visible space". As such, I think it is correct for it to interrupt cursive joining: if I write Arabic words without spaces between them, I'd still expect to interrupt joining at the word boundaries (it's somewhat analogous to the use of camelCase when writing a multiWordEnglishLanguageIdentifier).

So I think the proposed response is answering the wrong question. We're not requesting a change of General Category but a change of Arabic Joining Type.

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Received on Monday, 27 April 2020 12:02:42 UTC