[minutes] Internationalization telecon 2025-05-15

https://www.w3.org/2025/05/15-i18n-minutes.html





text version:

                             – DRAFT –
           Internationalization Working Group Teleconference

15 May 2025

   [2]Agenda. [3]IRC log.

      [2] https://www.w3.org/events/meetings/b7edae68-f52c-4aab-a1a6-3c37459e0786/20250515T150000/
      [3] https://www.w3.org/2025/05/15-i18n-irc

Attendees

   Present
          Addison, Atsushi, Fuqiao, JcK, Richard, Zainab

   Regrets
          -

   Chair
          Addison Phillips

   Scribe
          xfq

Contents

    1. [4]Agenda Review
    2. [5]Action Items
    3. [6]Info Share
    4. [7]Review RADAR
    5. [8]Pending Issue Review
    6. [9]TPAC Planning
    7. [10]Discuss <cite>Limiting Access to Local Fonts</cite>
       proposal
    8. [11]WebNN
    9. [12]ARIA key-shortcuts
   10. [13]Specdev "isomorphic string" PR
   11. [14]Font filtering & generic fonts
   12. [15]AOB?
   13. [16]Summary of action items

Meeting minutes

  Agenda Review

  Action Items

   <addison> [17]https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues

     [17] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues

   <addison> #169

   <gb> [18]Action 169 reply to html 10843 and css 9832 (on
   aphillips) due 2025-05-08

     [18] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/169

   <addison> #168

   <gb> [19]Action 168 add instructions on dark mode to
   i18n-editors (on xfq) due 2025-05-01

     [19] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/168

   <addison> #165

   <gb> [20]Action 165 add a conformance section to suppress the
   respec warning to specdev (on aphillips) due 2025-04-10

     [20] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/165

   <addison> #162

   <gb> [21]Action 162 poll I18N/CSS for new day/time (on
   aphillips) due 2025-03-25

     [21] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/162

   <addison> #157

   <gb> [22]Action 157 write glossary proposal identifying options
   and next steps for those options (on aphillips) due 2025-02-20

     [22] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/157

   <addison> #136

   <gb> [23]Issue 136 follow up on XML errata (by aphillips)
   [task]

     [23] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/136

   addison: xml-editor list has been revived
   … now you can send errata about the xml spec

   <addison> #135

   <gb> [24]Action 135 follow up on XR issue 1393 about locale in
   session (on aphillips) due 2024-10-17

     [24] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/135

   <addison> #127

   <gb> [25]Action 127 make a list of shared topics of interest
   between TG2 and W3C-I18N (on aphillips) due 2024-09-30

     [25] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/127

   <addison> #33

   <gb> [26]Action 33 Close issues marked `close?` or bring to WG
   for further review (on aphillips)

     [26] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/33

   <addison> #7

   <gb> [27]Action 7 Remind shepherds to tend to their awaiting
   comment resolutions (Evergreen) (on aphillips, xfq, himorin,
   r12a, bert-github) due 18 Jul 2023

     [27] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/7

   <addison> #4

   <gb> [28]Action 4 Work with respec and bikeshed to provide the
   character markup template as easy-to-use markup (on aphillips)
   due 27 Jul 2023

     [28] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/4

  Info Share

   Zainab: my name is Zainab Rizvi
   … I work at Google on Chrome
   … I work on a team that looks at anti-tracking
   … anti-fingerprinting measures, detection, and possible
   interventions
   … a lot of the interventions we think about don't necessarily
   think about i18n because the goal is to have uniformity

   r12a: Unicode 17 beta will start on 20th
   … I've already updated Uniview
   … but haven't released it yet

   <r12a> [29]https://r12a.github.io/scripts/
   index.html#scriptnotes

     [29] https://r12a.github.io/scripts/index.html#scriptnotes

   r12a: because there might be last minute changes to the data
   … I've been going through my orthographic notes
   … and updating them significantly

  Review RADAR

   <addison> [30]https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/91/views/1

     [30] https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/91/views/1

   addison: we have no new incoming requests this week
   … we got an early review request for DID

  Pending Issue Review

   <addison> [31]https://github.com/w3c/i18n-activity/
   issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Apending

     [31] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-activity/issues?q=is:issue+is:open+label:pending

  TPAC Planning

   ACTION: addison: reserve two days worth of meetings at tpac

   <gb> Created [32]action #170

     [32] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/170

  Discuss <cite>Limiting Access to Local Fonts</cite> proposal

   addison: does anybody have any specific preferences for tpac?

   <addison> [33]https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/
   member-i18n-core/2025May/0000.html

     [33] https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/member-i18n-core/2025May/0000.html

   <addison> [34]explainers-by-googlers/
   limiting-local-fonts-access

     [34] https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/limiting-local-fonts-access

   Zainab: Limiting Access to Local Fonts is an early proposal by
   our team
   … we're looking for specific feedback from this group before we
   incubate it further
   … the motivation is to combat font-based fingerprinting

   <addison> (our comment: [35]https://github.com/
   explainers-by-googlers/limiting-local-fonts-access/issues/3)

     [35] https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/limiting-local-fonts-access/issues/3)

   <gb> [36]Issue 3 W3C I18N WG comments (by aphillips)

     [36] https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/limiting-local-fonts-access/issues/3

   Zainab: specifically looking at canvas measure text but as we
   all know that's not the only way
   … there's also like CSS font-family that's used to uniquely
   identify users across the web
   … very simply the proposal is to have a list-based approach
   … specifically for Windows and Mac
   … and then use those lists as source of truth when determining
   whether a font is considered user installed
   … towards Safari already does
   … the reason why we're just considering Mac and Windows right
   now is because Linux distributions are varied and we don't
   think a list-based approach will be sustainable
   … feedback is welcome
   … the first thing I wanted to talk about are use cases that
   cannot be covered by web fonts or the local fonts access API

   r12a: I feel very poorly prepared and unfortunately I've
   written about these things in so many different places and so
   many different threads that I'm not sure I could immediately
   find
   … the list of things I want to mention
   … but let me start with a couple of things
   … first, I no longer use Safari because of my work with scripts
   from around. the world Safari is no use to me anymore
   … I hope that Chrome does not go the same way
   … the system fonts are often way out of date
   … even Google Noto fonts
   … there are things like the Urdu font
   … which has had significant changes recently to support Urdu
   and Kashmiri and so on
   … and Mac prevents you using the latest version of the font
   even if you download it
   … it's a pain in the neck
   … I'm not sure I've covered all of them, I need to find that
   list that I did before but those are issues around the idea
   that system fonts are not enough
   … the idea of using web fonts is not all the time great because
   Chinese fonts is too big
   … some page contains a lot of languages
   … needs lots of bandwidth by having to have every font
   downloaded

   [37]w3c/csswg-drafts#4055 has some example issues

     [37] https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4055

   <gb> [38]Issue 4055 [css-fonts] incorporate mitigations for
   font based fingerprinting (by pes10k) [css-fonts-4]
   [i18n-tracker] [Needs Design / Proposal] [privacy-tracker]

     [38] https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4055

   r12a: people who are researching stuff like Egyptian
   hieroglyphs and stuff like that they want to be able to switch
   between fonts to understand whether they support things
   correctly and so on
   … without any penalties or having to create web fonts before
   being able to do anything
   … and they're doing that locally on their own system
   … from my point of view they should be immune

   addison: let's pause here for a second
   … this has been a long discussion in a lot of places

   Zainab: I have a few different thoughts
   … thank you for the feedback, r12a
   … extremely useful
   … I'm a native Urdu speaker, I can read Kashmiri and I also
   find Safari unusable, so I definitely relate in that front
   … you're right that we would be disadvantaging folks
   … I've been thinking of a few ways we could mitigate some of
   these concerns
   … I have a few very early ideas
   … the localhost one is very obvious
   … we should not have interventions in place at localhost
   … I think that's agreed upon
   … there's not thread model for privacy
   … the other thing is opt-in mode of some sort and maybe
   starting with Chrome's incognito mode
   … which has less users than regular browsingt
   … also somewhere we're trying out like new privacy features,
   when a user has opted into a higer privacy mode
   … and that can be perceived as an active choice being made by
   users
   … that's one option
   … the other option would be to have an explicit toggle that
   would apply to the entire browsing sessions
   … but they would need to opt into it
   … and then we can talk about how this would work for enterprise
   users

   r12a: so if you don't do that , you can continue as we
   currently go on at the moment right?
   … then you've got the question of educating people to say if
   you do want to fly under the radar then use this mode
   … that sounds like an interesting way
   … the "more than x fonts" thing I'd break that barrier pretty
   quickly
   … I wrote one of the Unicode tehnical notes on Indic scripts
   and how they work, I'm using example for all of those scripts,
   so I'm probably going to hit 10 or more
   … in a single article of that kind

   Zainab: a quick response
   … when you're talking about building web pages that use like
   more than whatever the limit might be would you be open to then
   requesting permission through the local font access API
   explicitly
   … then you can do as many as you want, there is no limit
   … it's an existing API

   ACTION: zainab: revise local-font-access to exclude localhost
   and talk more about opt-in model

   <gb> Cannot create action. Validation failed. Maybe zainab is
   not a valid user for w3c/i18n-actions?

   Zainab: it's saved in their preferences

   r12a: yes I think that's what I had suggested previously

   ACTION: addison: remind zainab: revise local-font-access to
   exclude localhost and talk more about opt-in model

   <gb> Created [39]action #171

     [39] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-actions/issues/171

   Zainab: I have one question
   … I don't know if folks are familiar with the Windows features
   on demand
   … which are the extrea things that you can install
   … based on your region
   … we were exploring to have sublists based on different
   countries and locals
   … but we don't want to be in the business of maintaining 100
   different lists
   … but if it's a useful thing we're open to it

   r12a: it's also a problem of determing which is the right list
   for you

   <Bert> gb, help alias?

   <gb> Bert, I am a bot to look up and create GitHub issues and

   <gb> … action items. I am an instance of GHURLBot 0.5.

   <gb> … Try gb, help commands or

   <gb> … see [40]https://w3c.github.io/GHURLBot/manual.html

     [40] https://w3c.github.io/GHURLBot/manual.html

   addison: it's tricky
   … the world is a big place

  WebNN

   [41]https://github.com/webmachinelearning/webnn/pull/841/files

     [41] https://github.com/webmachinelearning/webnn/pull/841/files

   <gb> [42]MERGED Pull Request 841 Add notes regarding label
   usage, provided by i18n review (by inexorabletash)

     [42] https://github.com/webmachinelearning/webnn/pull/841

   <addison> [43]w3c/i18n-activity#1999

     [43] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-activity/issues/1999

   <gb> [44]Issue 1999 String metadata and localization for
   operator labels (by xfq) [close?] [needs-resolution] [s:webnn]
   [t:loc_localization] [wg:webmachinelearning]

     [44] https://github.com/w3c/i18n-activity/issues/1999

   [xfq introduces the issue and PR]

   addison: I think this is a classical tension
   … particularly with develop facing stuff
   … the statement that the string isn't intended to be natural
   language
   … I think the notes that they inserted look good
   … maybe the warning about Trojan Source is a good one but
   that's sort of a general purpose warning and maybe it doesn't
   need to be right there
   … I imagine they have other strings besides this which is
   Unicode data
   … if this is the only one then here is fine

   xfq: sounds good to me

  ARIA key-shortcuts

   <addison> [45]w3c/aria#2141

     [45] https://github.com/w3c/aria/issues/2141

   <gb> [46]Issue 2141 `aria-keyshortcuts` needs attention? (by
   aphillips) [i18n-tracker]

     [46] https://github.com/w3c/aria/issues/2141

   <addison> [47]https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/
   public-i18n-core/2025AprJun/0035.html

     [47] https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-i18n-core/2025AprJun/0035.html

   addison: aria-keyshortcuts
   … we have a longstanding issue
   … daniel invited us to their next call
   … y'all are invited to come too

  Specdev "isomorphic string" PR

   <addison> [48]https://
   deploy-preview-158--bp-i18n-specdev.netlify.app/#char-string-by
   te-oriented

     [48] https://deploy-preview-158--bp-i18n-specdev.netlify.app/#char-string-byte-oriented

   addison: a couple of weeks ago I showed you the early version
   of this section's rewrite
   … I took your feedback
   … and made some changes
   … hopefully better illustrating how bytestrings work

   <addison> [49]w3c/bp-i18n-specdev#158

     [49] https://github.com/w3c/bp-i18n-specdev/pull/158

   <gb> [50]Pull Request 158 Address isomorphic string and
   ByteString guidance (by aphillips)

     [50] https://github.com/w3c/bp-i18n-specdev/pull/158

   addison: comments welcome
   … particularly interested in whether we got the mustard
   guidelines right

  Font filtering & generic fonts

   r12a: we now have generic(nastaliq) in CSS
   … I'm not sure whether the font filtering stuff that we were
   just talking about has an impact here
   … one of the things you'd be able to do with generic fonts is
   you could author a document without calling for a specific font
   at all

   Zainab: I'll have to look into the specific lists for these
   different system fonts

   r12a: in Safari's case you would fall back to the system
   nastaliq font
   … but as a user you should be able to prioritize the order in
   which the fonts get chosen

  AOB?

Summary of action items

    1. [51]addison: reserve two days worth of meetings at tpac
    2. [52]zainab: revise local-font-access to exclude localhost
       and talk more about opt-in model
    3. [53]addison: remind zainab: revise local-font-access to
       exclude localhost and talk more about opt-in model

Received on Friday, 16 May 2025 02:39:42 UTC