Re: titledir

As far as I know, the longdesc attribute points to a URL, and
therefore is not subject to the same considerations as the title
attribute.  The alt attribute, as applied to images, _can_ potentially
be subject to the same concern, IMO.  However, I think in order to
determine the direction of the alternate text, I think it should be
safe to specify that user agents are supposed to use the value of the
dir attribute on the img element (or its computed CSS direction).

Furthermore, I don't see why we need to explicitly specify that the
titledir attribute should not have a CSS equivalent.

I agree with the rest of the proposal as presented by Aharon.

--
Ehsan
<http://ehsanakhgari.org/>



On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:14 AM, Aharon (Vladimir) Lanin
<aharon@google.com> wrote:
> Section 3.6 of Additional Requirements for Bidi in HTML proposes that "The
> HTML specification should explicitly state that title and alt attribute text
> will be displayed in the element's computed direction." On the other hand,
> the section also points out that at times, the direction of an element and
> the text of its tooltip do not naturally coincide, and brings as an example
> an RTL web page that displays an LTR address (e.g. for a location in
> Europe), with a tooltip on the address element saying "ADDRESS" in the
> page's language. The tooltip thus needs to be RTL while the element needs to
> be LTR. Although a workaround can be found for this example (wrapping the
> address element with a span or a div containing the tooltip, while leaving
> the dir=ltr for the address element inside, and thus not affecting the
> tooltip), workarounds are not ideal.
>
> Past discussion has therefore proposed adding an explicit titledir attribute
> to the HTML specification, allowed on all elements that allow the title
> attribute, and allowing the same values as the dir attribute. When not
> specified, element's computed direction would be used (as already proposed).
> It is my intention to add this to the next draft of the proposal.
>
> The question has been raised whether titledir would / should also apply to
> the alt and longdesc attributes (which go together). My feelings are that it
> should not, for the following reasons:
>
> - It is not something that is easily guessed from the proposed "titledir"
> name.
>
> - While the title attribute is used to give additional information about its
> element, and additional information can indeed be in a different language
> than the element or the rest of the page, the alt attribute is used to give
> an alternate description, i.e. the text that will be displayed instead of
> the element when the element can not be displayed. It should therefore be in
> the same language as the element, and its direction should not differ from
> the element's computed direction.
>
> Thus titledir should apply to title only, while the element's computed
> direction should apply to title (when titledir is not specified), as well as
> alt and longdesc.
>
> To round out the definition of titledir, I think that it should:
> - not be inherited.
> - not have any CSS counterpart.
>
> Aharon
>

Received on Friday, 3 September 2010 03:45:39 UTC