Re: bidi list formatting (was meeting results - f2f on additional requirements for bidi in HTML)

> "left", "right", and "start" are perfectly clear

They may be clear, but they are inappropriate as direction values. Consider
"list-style-direction:start". What exactly is the start *direction*? Is
there a "direction:start" style? The "start" value has a meaning in the
context of a given direction, but it is never a direction itself. Same for
"left" and "right" (as opposed to "ltr" and "rtl".

Ok, you say, let's make it
list-style-marker-position:left|right|start|match-me. No good: we want this
to affect not just the marker's position, but the actual direction in which
the marker's content (e.g. "1.") will be displayed (is it "1." or ".1"?).

Thus, I say that it should stay as list-style-direction, but allow just two
values: “like-list” and “like-item”. The CSS initial value would be
like-item, but the default style sheet would set it to like-list on the root
element. Inheritance would then take over. To control the behavior of a
specific list element, the author would set it on that list element.

Aharon

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 9:00 PM, CE Whitehead <cewcathar@hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> From: Aharon (Vladimir) Lanin <aharon@google.com>
> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:25:53 +0300
> > c. The CSS initial value will be “start”. However, to get markers to
> > appear
> > all on one side in most cases, the default style sheet will specify
> > ":not(li)> ol, :not(li)> ul { list-style-direction:match-me;}". (The
> > reason we can't change the CSS initial value is because list-style-
> > direction
> > is effectively 'start' according to CSS2.1, and this default behavior
> > cannot
> > be changed later. CSS2.1 will not change because there are use cases for
> > the
> > current behavior and we already have interop on it.)
> > [Editor’s note: “left”, “right”, and “start” seem to be alignment values,
> > not direction values. We are trying to deal with marker direction, which
> > affects not only where the marker is going to be displayed, but the way
> > the
> > marker’s text will be displayed (e.g. where the period of an ordered
> > marker
> > goes). It therefore seems that this section needs to be redesigned.
> > Perhaps
> > the values should be simply “like-list” and “like-item”, with
> > inheritance.]
> Hi, Aharon, all:
> "like-list" "like-item" are o.k. although "left", "right", and "start" are
> perfectly clear!
> Maybe "left" "right" and "inherit-list"
> A margin could be defined I think anytime you had something aligned with
> that margin.  So you might have one or two margins defined, depending on
> whether elements in a doc aligned with one or the other or both.
> Thanks!
> --C. E. Whitehead
> cewcathar@hotmail.com
>