Re: [css3-writing-modes] a third option for implementing logical properties

As John Daggett also pointed out vertical layout has its own history and features that are distinct from horizontal layout. So automatic fallback would result in suboptimal results. With that said, probably it should be at least readable though.

We are talking about browsers that are updated to recognize properties in the Writing Mode module but do not support vertical text, correct?

- kida

On 2010/10/24, at 17:03, David Hyatt wrote:

> On Oct 24, 2010, at 6:39 PM, Yasuo Kida wrote:
> 
>> 
>>>> I'm not sure we need per-element switches, though. I think the use
>>>> case is more for different document modes. For example, a button on a
>>>> Japanese tablet that toggles between vertical and horizontal layout.
>>> 
>>> That's one thing I'm wondering as well.  Is there really any desire to be abstract at the element level (other than on the part of the UA, who can always just use internal logical properties that aren't exposed to authors)?  If the switching really is done at a document level, then a media query makes a lot of sense.
>> 
>> Yes, switch at the element level is critical. This is an example of typical simple page composition of Japanese literature:
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/NOTE-jlreq-20090604/ja/images/img1_3.png
>> 
>> At the top of the page you see "$BBh(B5$B>O!!869F@0M}(B". This is the title of the section 5 and laid out horizontally. Also, notice at the bottom of the page the page number is in horizontal.
>> 
>> Magazines also mix vertical and horizontal writing and it can be fairly complex.
>> http://www.oshmans.co.jp/blog/img/2009/03/dscn4029.jpg
>> http://fujisan.typepad.jp/photos/uncategorized/2009/07/01/topposter_4.jpg
>> http://blog-imgs-30-origin.fc2.com/k/u/n/kunikitakaharuweb/20100122190822401.jpg
>> 
> 
> Yes, we know we need mixed writing modes within the same document.  The question is do the vertical text sections have to degrade gracefully to horizontal using the same stylesheet, or could the author just feed a separate stylesheet to browsers that don't support vertical text?  I
> 
> dave
> (hyatt@apple.com)
>