On Sat, Dec 21, 2002 at 10:42:07PM -0600, Derek Moore wrote:
And third
thing:
Could we make it an official rule that no change in markup will
be even considered without considering how would it affect CJK and
right-to-left languages ?
I'd never thought specifically about that, but I suppose you're right. I
don't know jack about CJK or Hebrew or anything other than English (and a
wee bit o' French), so I wouldn't really know how to be sympathetic to
issues raised by those languages (until someone educates me on the topic,
at least).
In any case, I would agree. The markup should be comfortable for all
languages.
So quick and rather simplified guide to CJK:
* They generally use fixed-width fonts that occupy a square.
Some simple characters like katakana exist in full-width and
half-width versions, where half-width version occupies halfsquare,
like Latin fixed-width characters. This sometimes includes
Latin (Arabic) numbers and Latin characters, but sometimes not.
* They don't use italics, bold, or other such font modifications.
Fonts aren't meant to be modified in any way.
* They don't use underline. Idea of using underline for links is not good,
it makes some distinct characters look the same.
I think it would be better to use some colors instead.
* They don't use spaces, and their concept of "word" is different than
Western, so search engine must be fixed too.
* They don't use Western punctuation for normal text (they may be using it for
numbers and other things), or they use fixed-width versions that look
completely different.
* They are sometimes writted vertically top-down then right-left,
and sometimes horizontally like in Latin script.
* For pronunciation they usually use Furigana/Ruby (small font on top of word
in horizontal or on right in vertical text), not parenthesis.
* Western punctuation for formatting looks really ugly when inserted
into CJK text.
Now, I'd like to have someone knowing Arab, Hebrew, or some other
right-to-left language describe problems involving them.
It's not really surprising that we do't have many CJK or right-to-left
contributors, as our interface is very inconvenient for them.