Re: Bidi space Q&A, [was RE: Agenda I18N Core TF telcon, 2003-06-10 at 17:00 UTC, 10am PST, 1pm EST, 18:00UK]

At 13:36 03/06/18 +0100, Richard Ishida wrote:

>Many thanks for this, Ian.  I have used your information to produce a
>new draft of my Q&A.
>
>  http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-bidi-space.html

Here are some comments. I have reduced the cross-posting.

I think this is a very good topic for Q&A, a small issue with
an easy answer, supported by the specs.

In the question "Why does my browser" is a good way to connect
to the reader, but this Q&A is for Web authors, and we should
get them away from the impression that their browser is what
counts. So "Why do browsers" is much better. If we want to
stay personal, we can add "in my Web pages" at the end.

Background: reduce the 'may' and 'would', i.e.
    "text may appear to collapse" -> "text collapses"
    "Would produce a result that looks as follows" ->
    "produces the following result"

Alignment of images: I would align them to the left. Especially on
    a wide page, it is more difficult for the readers to follow
    the flow of the argument.

Answer: "If the previous section describes the look of your code,":
    "code" -> "markup"

    Better align the text before and after the example. Currently, we
    have 'remove space or dir' before the example, and then
    'remove dir or <span>' afterwards. This overlap is confusing.

    I would also add (here or at some other place) that the answer
    is a specific instance of two more general principles:
    1) Keep your markup tight around the text you mark up.
    2) Keep your markup and the text you mark up balanced.
       (i.e. don't use (<span>W3C)</span> or so)
    These principles are helpful in general, but of particular
    importance for bidi markup.

How does it look for me?: Again, this is the wrong viewpoint to
    ask for authors. And because we know now what the spec
    requests, we can probably reduce the list of examples.
    Also, again, 'code' -> 'markup'

Technical detail:

    "Only read this section if you want the gory details about why
     this happens.": The title should be enough to help the
    readers decide whether they want to read this part.

    "The specifications listed in the sources section below":
    Use the actual names, and provide links.


Regards,    Martin.

Received on Thursday, 19 June 2003 16:01:19 UTC