- From: fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net>
- Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:33:08 -0800
- To: www-style@w3.org
Steve, Paul, and I had an informal meeting today to discuss vertical text issues,
and one of the things we discussed was consistent terminology for writing-mode-
independent layout descriptions (so we don't have to keep writing "if writing-mode
is this, ... ; if writing-mode is that, ...").
Here's the proposed mapping from current terminology to writing-mode-generic:
Dimensions
----------
width logical width
height logical height
* The distinction between "width" and "logical width" can be more explicit
by using the term "physical width", and likewise for height.
* An alternative set of terms would be "relative width" vs "absolute width".
(Comments on relative/absolute vs logical/physical?)
Directions
----------
n/a (refer to 'direction' property) inline direction
n/a (refer to 'direction' property) block direction
Sides (from LTR reference)
--------------------------
top before
left start
right end
bottom after
Layout Modes
------------
"in vertical text", "in vertical layout",
"when writing-mode is vertical", etc. in vertical writing mode
"in horizontal text", "in horizontal layout",
"when writing-mode is horizontal", etc. in horizontal writing mode
Examples
--------
an English (LTR-TB) block:
<---- width / logical width --->
top side/
before side
+------------------------------+ A
left side/ | ---inline direction ---> | right side/ |
start side | | | end side |
| | block * horizontal * | height/
| | direction *writing mode* | logical height
| V | |
+------------------------------+ V
bottom side/
after side
a vertical Japanese block (TTB-RL):
<--- width / logical height --->
top side/
start side
+------------------------------+ A
left side/ | <---block direction--- | right side/ |
after side | | | before side |
| * vertical * inline| | height/
| *writing mode* direction| | logical width
| V | |
+------------------------------+ V
bottom side/
end side
We hope that by adopting and defining such terms, we will make modules like
the Box Module, MultiCol, Paged Media, Text Layout, and others defining CSS3
box layout easier to write in a way that works well with the vertical layout
feature and is less likely to contain errors. :)
~fantasai
Received on Wednesday, 27 February 2008 08:32:54 UTC