Re: dir=auto makes no sense for descendant user-visible attributes

   Hello, Aharon!

We are almost in agreement. You wrote:
* attribsdir = "auto": the directionality of each of the element's 
attributes must be computed independently from the attribute's value. 
<end of quote>
I believe that you meant "independently from the element's value".

You wrote:
* 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 is computed independently from the attribute's value, as for 
attribsdir="auto".
<end of quote>
It is the same problem as above. I suggest the following text instead:
* 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.

Shalom (Regards),  Mati
       Bidi Architect
       Globalization Center Of Competency - Bidirectional Scripts
       IBM Israel
       Mobile: +972 52 2554160




From:   "Aharon (Vladimir) Lanin" <aharon@google.com>
To:     Najib Tounsi <ntounsi@emi.ac.ma>
Cc:     Matitiahu Allouche/Israel/IBM@IBMIL, "Martin J. Dürst" 
<duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp>, Ehsan Akhgari <ehsan@mozilla.com>, 
public-i18n-bidi@w3.org
Date:   29/02/2012 12:47
Subject:        Re: dir=auto makes no sense for descendant user-visible 
attributes



Thanks, Najib, for summarizing above.

I have come around to Mati's view.

Here is a formulation that works the way Mati wants it but also avoids the 
bdi issue. It also makes use of the concept of element directionality 
whose inheritance (as opposed to the inheritance of the dir attribute) is 
defined in the HTML5 spec (
http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-dir-attribute):

A new attribute, attribsdir="ltr|rtl|auto", is proposed 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 independently from the 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 is computed independently from the attribute's value, as for 
attribsdir="auto".
    o Otherwise, the directionality of the element's attributes is the 
same as the element's directionality.

I intend to file a bug on HTML5 with that wording (after explaining the 
current problems). If anyone sees a problem, please respond ASAP.

Aharon