comments about Guidelines for spec developers related to handling text fragments

I think that this document is useful and generally well written. I have a few comments about a few points of detail.

1) In section "Text direction", item 2, we find: "set the direction based on the first strong directional character outside of any markup".
I think that "outside of any markup" is too restrictive. What about markup changing color, size or font?
I suggest "outside of any markup specifying or implying a specific direction for its content".

2) In section "General bidi guidelines", the term "bidi attributes" is not defined. For the casual reader, it is not clear what that might involve beyond direction. I suggest to add examples of such bidi attributes.

3) In item 6 of the same section, there is mention of "directional attributes". If the intent is the same as "bidi attributes", the same term should be used in all places.

4) In item 7 of the same section, there is mention of "change the base direction". I think that there is no reason to restrict the change to the base direction. I suggest "change the bidi attributes, in particular the base direction".

5) Item 8 of the same section might be difficult to interpret, IMHO. If the element allows plain text, how exactly developers are supposed to prevent the use of  natural language? What are the alternatives? I think that I understand the reasons which led to this item, but I am wondering about its practicality. 
 
Shalom (Regards),  Mati


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Ishida [mailto:ishida@w3.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 4:06 PM
To: www International
Subject: i18n-ACTION-137: Guidelines for spec developers related to handling text fragments

As per i18n-ACTION-137, I have added some basic, initial text to the wiki page at

http://www.w3.org/International/wiki/Bp_spec_bidi

Under the heading "Handling text fragments". Please send comments and suggestions to this list.

Background: I would like to get some of the knowledge we apply in reviews into document form, so that WGs can be advised about things we are likely to say well before Last Call arrives.  The idea is to gather ideas and flesh them out in the wiki initially, and eventually publish one or a series of Notes.

RI

Richard Ishida
Internationalization Activity Lead
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

http://www.w3.org/International/
http://rishida.net/

Received on Wednesday, 8 August 2012 14:54:39 UTC