[Bug 16160] dir=auto does not work for user-visible attribute values

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=16160

jam0410a <jam0410a@gmail.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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             Status|NEW                         |ASSIGNED
                 CC|                            |jam0410a@gmail.com

--- Comment #10 from jam0410a <jam0410a@gmail.com> ---
(In reply to comment #0)
> Currently, the HTML5 spec says that "Text from elements (either attribute
> values or the contents of elements) is expected to be rendered in a manner
> that honors the directionality of the element from which the text was
> obtained."
> 
> While this is generally useful, it does not make sense for elements whose
> directionality was determined using dir=auto (on the element or an
> ancestor), since the directionality of an element with dir=auto is chosen on
> the basis of descendant text nodes and is completely unrelated to the value
> of the attributes in its scope of influence. The dir=auto feature is
> designed for use in web application that need to plop some text of unknown
> direction into the page. There is no reason to assume that the title on the
> element holding this text is also "plopped in" data; in fact, it is more
> likely to be an explanation in the page's own language of what got plopped
> in.
> 
> The situation is exacerbated by there being no way to specify the
> directionality of attribute values except wrapping them in LRE|RLE and PDF,
> which were never designed for human use. This has been reported as
> https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10818 and
> https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=15488.
> 
> The converse situation, when the data of unknown directionality needs to be
> used   for a user-visible attribute, is even more problematic: there is no
> way to get the user agent to base the directionality of an attribute on its
> own value.
> 
> This problem has been discussed on public-18n-bidi@w3.org, and we would like
> to suggest a potential solution for all three problems (i.e. dir=auto having
> unintended results on user-visible attribute values, no dir=auto for
> user-visible attribute values, 3. and no way to declare the directionality
> of user-visible attributes).
> 
> We propose a new attribute, attribsdir="ltr|rtl|auto", which would determine
> the directionality in which an element's attributes (for example title, alt,
> and placeholder) must appear when displayed to the user:
> 
>  * attribsdir="ltr": the directionality of the element's attributes is 'ltr'
>  * attribsdir="rtl": the directionality of the element's attributes is 'rtl'
>  * attribsdir = "auto": the directionality of each of the element's
> attributes must be computed based on that attribute's value. If an
> attribute's value contains a character of bidirectional character type AL or
> R, and there is no character of bidirectional character type L anywhere
> before it in the attribute's value, then the directionality of the attribute
> is 'rtl'. Otherwise, the directionality of the attribute is 'ltr'.
>  * attribsdir not specified:
>     o If the element has dir=auto (explicitly or by default, as is the case
> for the bdi element), or if the element inherits its directionality from
> such an element, then the directionality of each of the element's attributes
> must be computed as if attribsdir="auto" had been specified.
>     o Otherwise, the directionality of the element's attributes is the same
> as the element's directionality.

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Received on Saturday, 24 November 2012 22:56:11 UTC