[css3-lists] marker-side vs. marker-direction

The 'marker-side' property in CSS3 Lists as added in response to feedback
from i18n indicating that the CSS2.1 behavior is not ideal in cases where
the list item's content changes directionality. See these 2010 F2F minutes
wrt CSS2.1 issues for background:
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2010Apr/0275.html

The current draft includes a 'marker-side' property to address this:
   http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-lists/#marker-side
   marker-side: list-item | list-container

But I think this isn't quite what we want: it doesn't address the base
directionality of the marker. If the marker is associated with the list,
not the list item, then its base directionality also needs to be taken
from the list, and not the list item. Otherwise any leading/trailing
punctuation may wind up in the wrong order. So it isn't a question of
the marker's "side" so much as its "direction". In which case maybe the
property should be 'marker-direction: match-self | match-parent'.

A second issue is what should happen for markers with 'list-style-position:
inside'. Should they ignore this property? Or should they honor it somehow?
If so, how? Does it affect their base directionality only, or does it also
affect their position, placing them at the end of the line instead of the
start, if necessary? I have no idea about this, maybe Aharon can chime in...

~fantasai

Received on Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:48:03 UTC