Re: [widgets] dir and span elements

On 1 Mar 2010, at 17:58, Phillips, Addison wrote:

> 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.

Thanks Addison - and yes, I think this makes a lot of sense for a  
"content"-style spec like HTML, however as the Widgets P&C is a  
configuration document most of which is IRIs, integers and so on  
rather than text content its less of a clear case.

If dir conformance is tested in relation to the Rule For Obtaining  
Text Content then this already scopes its use to the four elements  
mentioned as these are the only elements that the rule applies to.

> 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
>>>
>