Re: [1.2T-LC] i18n comment 6: Direction and bidi-override attributes (ISSUE-2107)

Hi, I18N-

ishida@w3.org wrote (on 10/10/08 3:43 PM):
> Comment from the i18n review of: 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-SVGMobile12-20080915/
> 
> Comment 6 At http://www.w3.org/International/reviews/0810-svg-tiny/ 
> Editorial/substantive: S Tracked by: RI
> 
> Location in reviewed document: 10.4
> [httphttp://www.w3.org/TR/SVGMobile12/text.html#TextElement]
> 
> Comment: The direction and bidi-override attributes are needed to
> establish a context so that the bidi algorithm can work. My
> understanding is that this was omitted unintentionally and will be
> put back in. This comment is based on the latest editor's copy of the
> document (ie. more recent than the version most of these comments
> apply to.)
> 
> 
> "In most cases, the bidirectional algorithm from [UNICODE] produces
> the desired result automatically, and overriding this algorithm
> properly is usually quite complex. Therefore, in most cases, authors
> are discouraged from assigning values to these properties."
> 
> 
> Actually, it's only in simple cases that you get the desired result
> automatically. For example, just put a period or other punctuation at
> the end of any Arabic or Hebrew text, and it will appear in the wrong
> place (at the right side) unless you have set the directional
> context, since the default is LTR. You could say that in *many* cases
> the bidi algorithm produces the result automatically, in which case
> it is not necessary to use the markup, but you can't say that in most
> cases authors are discouraged from using the attributes. Usually,
> however, it is not complex to use these properties, either. If you're
> working in Arabic, you'll most likely need to set the direction to
> RTL most of the time.
> 
> 
> Perhaps it would be helpful to provide an example of the most
> straightforward case, ie. unicode-bidi="embed" direction="rtl", that
> people can cut&paste.
> 
> 
> What *would really* be helpful, would be the possibility of declaring
> the direction at the top of the document, ie. in the svg element, and
> allowing it to cascade from there to all text elements. In *that*
> case, you are much less likely to need to set the properties on each
> text element, when working in a right-to-left script. (And it will
> save a lot of typing for the poor Middle Eastern authors.)

Thanks for your comment and suggestion.  The SVG WG will discuss this
and get back to you promptly.

Regards-
-Doug

Received on Saturday, 11 October 2008 03:00:16 UTC