RE: @lang => @dir (was 3.6. The root element)

> From: public-html-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:public-html-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Jason White
> Sent: 02 August 2007 11:30

> @dir doesn't address the vertical writing directionality 
> sometimes used in East asian typography. What is the plan for 
> addressing this directionality issue in HTML, including the 
> relationship between HTML 5 and W3C work on Ruby annotation?

Vertical or horizontal text is a purely stylistic choice, and so will be
dealt with by CSS3.  That will enable you to change the orientation of the
text by changing the CSS. (To see this in action, open
http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/samples/japanese.html in *Internet
Explorer* and change the Direction setting in the right column.)

@dir settings can affect the readability and meaning of the text, which is
why markup is used. (eg. See the example at
http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/bidi-xhtml/#Slide0380 where the
markup is needed in the absence of a stylesheet to indicate that the 'W3C'
is read after the Hebrew text).

RI

============
Richard Ishida
Internationalization Lead
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
 
http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/
http://www.w3.org/International/
http://people.w3.org/rishida/blog/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ishida/
 
 

Received on Thursday, 2 August 2007 12:32:23 UTC