Re: [css3-writing-modes] column progression direction

fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net> skreiv Thu, 21 Jun 2012 04:03:26  
+0200

> Alex Mogilevsky raised an issue in a discussion awhile back:  
> specifically,
> what should the column progression direction be if the parent of the
> multi-column element belongs to an orthogonal flow with a block flow
> direction opposite to the multi-col element's inline direction?
>
> E.g. suppose I have a vertical Japanese document:
>
>
>   ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
>   ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
>   ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
>   ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
>   ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
>     <====

I assume the document will scroll horizontally, with readers scrolling  
left as they read.

> Then I insert a horizontal (LTR) multicol element
>
>>>> -- >>>-- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
> ----- ----- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
> --A-- --B-- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ V
> ----- ----- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
> ----- ----- ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
>                 <====
>
> Is column A or B first in the logical order?

People that are used to reading vertical Japanese text (such as Koji-san,  
presumably) should probably have the final say here. But I will note this:

If A comes first, readers would have to scroll to the very left of the  
multicol element before they could start reading it, read while scrolling  
right, and then scroll back left to continue reading the Japanese text  
(unless, of course, the multicol element was short enough to fit in the  
viewport). Potentially annoying default behavior.

-- 
Leif Arne Storset
Layout Developer, Opera Software
Oslo, Norway

Received on Thursday, 21 June 2012 15:33:38 UTC