'dir' attribute on BIDI inline elements and actual browsers

• From: Helmut Wollmersdorfer <helmut@wollmersdorfer.at>
• Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 22:08:25 +0100
• To: www-html@w3.org
• Message-ID: <45870349.7040200@wollmersdorfer.at>

8.2.3 Setting the direction of embedded text
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/dirlang.html#h-8.2.3

describes the use of the 'dir'-attribute on inline elements, and gives a 
nice (and simple) example.

Let me give another example:

<p>English1 <span dir="rtl">&#1506;&#1489;&#1512;&#1497;&#1514;2</span>. 
<span dir="rtl">&#1506;&#1489;&#1512;&#1497;&#1514;3</span> Englisch4.</p>

In plain text
English1 Hebrew2. Hebrew3 English4.

Which some browsers (Mozilla familiy, IE) display

[1] English1 3werbeH .2werbeH English4.

and Konqueror 3.5.5 displays

[2] English1 2werbeH. 3werbeH English4.

Which one is compliant to the W3C Specification?

Or does the specification need corrections,
e.g. 'You need &lrm; in such a case'?

Helmut Wollmersdorfer

Received on Tuesday, 19 December 2006 14:31:41 UTC