Re: [iri] #118: What term to use for the kind of text that the Unicode Bidi Algorithm was designed for

#118: What term to use for the kind of text that the Unicode Bidi Algorithm was
designed for


Comment (by adil@…):

 Martin Writes:
 >I agree that if we look at the distinction between plain text and rich
 text, then it is appropriate to say that the Bidi Algorithm has been
 designed for plain text rather than for rich text. But in the two places
 in the spec where we have been using "running text" for the past seven or
 more years, it's NOT this distinction between plain text and rich text
 that we are after.
 >
 >To be more specific, it's irrelevant whether an IRI shows up in a plain
 text file (.txt) or a rich text file (e.g. MS Word, HTML with
 stylesheets,...). We have exactly the same problems with bidi IRIs in
 plain text as we have in rich text. This is because although the Bidi
 Algorithm was designed for plain text, essentially the same algorithm is
 used for rich text. For MS Word, there are usually a few tweaks where it
 does not behave exactly the same as the Unicode Bidi Algorithm (the last
 one of them is the special behavior regarding parentheses that was
 presented and discussed at last year's IUC), but the basics are the same.
 Rendered HTML also uses the Unicode Bidi Algorithm for its basic features.
 >
 >What the spec is referring to is the fact that the Bidi Algorithm was
 designed for sequences of characters, words, and punctuation such as they
 turn up in letters, newspaper articles, explanatory text in books, and so
 on, as opposed to sequences of characters as they turn up in artificial
 stuff such as IRIs, markup source, programming languages, and so on.
 >
 >I'm not sure whether "running text" is the best term for this, but I am
 very sure "plain text" is wrong for where we want to use it, because IRIs,
 markup source, programs, and so on are in many if not most cases plain
 text. Running text at least seems to come close, see e.g. the definition
 at http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/running_text.

-- 
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 Reporter:  duerst@…  |       Owner:  draft-ietf-iri-3987bis@…
     Type:  defect    |      Status:  new
 Priority:  major     |   Milestone:
Component:  3987bis   |     Version:
 Severity:  -         |  Resolution:
 Keywords:            |
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Ticket URL: <http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/iri/trac/ticket/118#comment:2>
iri <http://tools.ietf.org/wg/iri/>

Received on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 13:11:04 UTC