agenda+ [focusgroup] i18n: should arrow key navigation follow text direction?

In reviewing https://github.com/w3c/i18n-activity/issues/1620
(https://github.com/openui/open-ui/issues/522) because it is marked
"close?", I found that this group may be making a premature decision.

 

In general, they are making "forward" and "back" arrow keys behave logically
rather than physically-with "left arrow" being "back" (for example). This
may be the right behavior for selection extension, but not actually
intuitive to users who are cursoring in a non-selection context. The
interaction of bidi with arrow keys is known to be complex, with certain
sequences being complicated (or impossible) to navigate via the keyboard
alone.

 

Let's chat about their conclusions and ensure we agree before I close our
matching issue.

 

Addison Phillips

Chair (W3C Internationalization WG)

 

Internationalization is not a feature.

It is an architecture.