DOCBOOK: Re: bidi override thoughts

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

/ Tony Graham <Tony.Graham@Sun.COM> was heard to say:
| Norman Walsh wrote at 21 Aug 2002 16:57:19 -0400:
|  > Well, for consistency with HTML, and so that moving something from one
|  > context to another doesn't inadvertantly "flip" the direction, I think
|  > I'd be inclined to give it values of "left-to-right" and
|  > "right-to-left" rather than just make it boolean.
|
| So you're really talking about setting the text direction, not about
| overriding the behaviour of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm?

Can you tell me how those two things are different?

| Isn't "dir" or "direction" a better name than "bdo"?

Well, yeah, naturally :-)

| If it really is an override, what sets the existing text direction
| that you're overriding?

It's set implicitly by the language of the containing block?

My understanding, which could easily be so totally wrong as to cause
hysterical laughter among those who do understand, is that you
sometimes have to switch writing direction without changing languages
(e.g., arabic numerals in hebrew text). Unicode has override
characters for this purpose, but the Unicode Consortium deprecates
their use in XML, preferring to use an element for this purpose.

When you stop laughing, Tony, can I borrow a clue :-)

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | A wonder is often expressed that
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | the greatest criminals look like
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | other men. The reason is that
                                   | *they are like other men in many
                                   | respects.*--Hazlitt