RE: [widgets] dir and span elements

Hi Scott,

One reason to make 'dir' available on higher-level elements is that 'dir', like 'xml:lang', has scope. It is often useful to specify a "base" directionality for an entire document or block of elements rather than having to repeat it over-and-over on each affected element. I can agree that it might not make sense on every element and perhaps we should look at which structural elements in P&C make sense as a place to set a base directionality or directionality override.

I also agree about making <span> available inside <license>. In fact, it is probably the *most* useful inside the license element.

Addison

Addison Phillips
Globalization Architect -- Lab126

Internationalization is not a feature.
It is an architecture.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-i18n-core-request@w3.org [mailto:public-i18n-core-
> request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Scott Wilson
> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:44 AM
> To: marcosc@opera.com
> Cc: public-webapps; public-i18n-core@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [widgets] dir and span elements
> 
> Hi Marcos,
> 
> On 26 Feb 2010, at 17:44, Marcos Caceres wrote:
> 
> > Hi i18n WG,
> > I've added the dir attribute and span elements to the Widgets P&C
> > Specification, as well as a bunch of examples (which are wrong,
> so I
> > would really appreciate some help with these!).
> >
> > The dir attribute is specified here:
> > http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/widgets/#global-attributes

> >
> > The span element is specified here:
> > http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/widgets/#the-span-element

> >
> > The processing step that defers to the yet to be written [WIDGET-
> BIDI]
> > specification is defined here:
> > http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/widgets/#rule-for-getting-text-content

> >
> > The specification makes it mandatory that a user agent implement
> the
> > WIDGET-BIDI spec:
> >
> > "A user agent is an implementation of this specification that
> also
> > supports [XML], [XMLNS], [UTF-8], [DOM3CORE], [SNIFF], [WIDGETS-
> BIDI],
> > and [ZIP]..."
> >
> > We would appreciate your review and any assistance you can
> provide.
> > In particular, we would appreciate your guidance into what would
> go
> > into the Widgets Bidi specification (i.e., how processing is done
> for
> > dir and span). At the moment, we only have the following text for
> such
> > a specification (based on HTML5's bdo element):
> >
> > [[
> > If an element has the dir attribute set to the exact value ltr,
> then
> > for the purposes of the bidi algorithm, the user agent must act
> as if
> > there was a U+202D LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE character at the start
> of
> > the element, and a U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING at the end
> of the
> > element.
> >
> > If the element has the dir attribute set to the exact value rtl,
> then
> > for the purposes of the bidi algorithm, the user agent must act
> as if
> > there was a U+202E RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE character at the start
> of
> > the element, and a U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING at the end
> of the
> > element.
> >
> > The requirements on handling the span element for the bidi
> algorithm
> > may be implemented indirectly through the style layer.
> > ]]
> 
> I can live with this, with a few comments:
> 
> 1. "dir" is now an (optional?) attribute of every element; however,
> previously its usage was limited to elements that contain human-
> readable text content: <author>, <license>, <description>, and
> <name>.
> Is there a reason for making it global in this manner? E.g. would
> it
> not make more sense to specify "dir" attributes on these four
> specific
> P&C elements? I don't see anyone putting "dir" on (e.g.) the height
> attribute, nor would we want to include a test for it for
> compliance
> with optional spec features.
> 
> 2. "span" should be allowed as a child element of the <license>
> element as well as for <name>, <description> and <author>.
> 
> >
> > Thanks again for all your time and help!
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Marcos
> > --
> > Marcos Caceres
> > http://datadriven.com.au

> >

Received on Monday, 1 March 2010 17:59:29 UTC