[Bug 10809] i18n comment 3 : new attribute: submitdir

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10809

--- Comment #28 from Aharon Lanin <aharon.lists.lanin@gmail.com> 2010-10-26 17:53:48 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #27)
> (In reply to comment #26)
> It's very intrusive to store out-of-band directionality info for each submitted
> item.  Applications normally pass around user input as strings.  If suddenly
> you have to pass them around as strings-plus-direction, you have to change all
> your functions to recognize this format throughout the code.

Applications won't suddenly have to do anything. If they want to use the
explicit direction information, they would turn on submitdir and provide a
place to store the direction bit. Most string processing functions are
unaffected by the direction and would not have to change. Those that do care
would have to get a new parameter.

> 
> > And if the app wants to
> > store it by adding control characters to the input value, it can do that too -
> > that's their business. Adding control characters is a lot easier than stripping
> > them off.
> 
> It's not trivial, though, if the input is multiple paragraphs, right?

It is not trivial, but multiple paragraphs are more difficult to deal with
whether stripping or adding the control characters. Either way, it's easier to
add than to strip.

> (Do e-mails really allow forms in practice?  I can't recall ever seeing a form
> in an e-mail in my life.)

Definitely yes. Google spreadsheet forms use them.

> We should aim to cover the most common use-cases first.  If it's possible using
> JavaScript, that means it's possible 95% of the time.

If so, why did all the browsers bother to provide the built-in direction
selection feature? Applications could always do it in script.

> If authors do this in
> JavaScript often enough, that's when we should consider a declarative,
> non-scripted way of doing it.  If it turns out that authors don't do it in
> JavaScript even when they can, then it's not worth adding the feature for. 

The problem is that the round trip takes something like five years. I have an
application for it right now.

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Received on Tuesday, 26 October 2010 17:53:56 UTC