[Bug 18339] When the parent element is not an HTML element, what directionality is inherited?

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18339

--- Comment #5 from Aharon Lanin <aharon.lists.lanin@gmail.com> 2012-08-27 15:11:44 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #4)
> An element can have
>   - LTR directionality
>   - RTL directionality
>   - no directionality
> http://www.w3.org/TR/selectors4/#the-dir-pseudo

I do not see where the link above or the current HTML5 spec say that an element
can have no directionality. As far as I understand, it is always either LTR or
RTL.

> 
> There are various possibilities, here are the three I can think of:
> 
>   - All elements, whether they are HTML or not, have a directionality.

And, presumably, it is inherited from the parent if not set through an explicit
dir attribute. This seems like the obvious approach to me.

> 
>   - Non-HTML elements do not have a directionality, but directionality
>     inherits through them. (This would be represented by two binary
>     states: whether the element is LTR or RTL, and whether the element
>     has a directionality or no.)

What would be the utility of having such a fine distinction?

> 
>   - As bz proposed, HTML children of elements without a directionality
>     inherit LTR.

But this would break current RTL pages that use non-HTML elements. And it would
mean that, by default, the children would have LTR directionality but RTL
direction (when the grandfather is RTL). Seems like a big mess to me.

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Received on Monday, 27 August 2012 15:11:54 UTC