Re: [html-bidi] Any bidi requirements for MathML (or MathMl in HTML)?

Traditionally, formulas in Hebrew mathematical publications are always
written left-to-right. The Israel Standards Institute is in the midst of
considering the question of whether to break with his tradition. Although a
final decision has not yet been made, it looks like the answer will
basically be no: math will continue to be written left-to-right.

For Arabic, on the other hand, the answer may be quite different, but I know
little about it.

Aharon

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 5:52 PM, Phillips, Addison <addison@lab126.com>wrote:

> Hi Bert,
>
> Thanks for the note. I have added this to our WG agenda for this week.
>
> Addison
>
> Addison Phillips
> Globalization Architect (Lab126)
> Chair (W3C I18N, IETF IRI WGs)
>
> Internationalization is not a feature.
> It is an architecture.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: public-i18n-bidi-request@w3.org [mailto:public-i18n-bidi-
> > request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Bert Bos
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 6:33 AM
> > To: public-i18n-bidi@w3.org
> > Subject: [html-bidi] Any bidi requirements for MathML (or MathMl in
> > HTML)?
> >
> > This is a somewhat vague question, and also rather late, given that
> > MathML3 is as good as finished (it's a Proposed Recommendation),
> > but I
> > just wondered if anybody has thought about math...
> >
> > The html-bidi[1] draft talks about requirements on HTML and CSS. It
> > doesn't mention MathML, although the current MathML also has bidi
> > support. And in the current plans for HTML5, MathML will be an
> > integral
> > part of the HTML language.
> >
> > Are there no additional requirements on MathML?
> >
> >
> > The problem of bidi isolation at least doesn't seem to occur in
> > MathML:
> >
> > Section 3.1.5[2] of MathML3 describes the bidi features of MathML.
> > It is
> > possible to set the overall direction of a formula as well as the
> > base
> > direction of individual tokens.
> >
> > Changing the overall direction acts almost like a mirror, e.g., "a
> > + b"
> > is written as "b + a" and superscripts (a²) are written on the left
> > of
> > their base (²a).
> >
> > Tokens are symbols (+, =), numbers (12, 0.5), letters (x, y), words
> > (sin, cos), or phrases ("such that," "theorem 1"). Setting a
> > direction
> > on tokens should rarely be needed, the inherited direction and the
> > Unicode bidi algorithm are usually enough.
> >
> > Unlike in HTML, each token is "directionally isolated" (in the
> > terms of
> > html-bidi WD), so a BDI attribute is not needed.
> >
> >
> > [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-html-bidi-20100304/
> > [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/MathML3/chapter3.html#presm.bidi
> >
> >
> >
> > Bert
> > --
> >   Bert Bos                                ( W 3 C )
> > http://www.w3.org/
> >   http://www.w3.org/people/bos
> > W3C/ERCIM
> >   bert@w3.org                             2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP
> > 93
> >   +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92            06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,
> > France
>
>