Understandably, sensitivities concerning ethnocentricity can be triggered within such a discussion, but how about:
1) A definition which will work among the greatest majority of linguistic cases -- languages that have a commonly accepted range of word delimiters (which I think might include all European and Semitic languages, or other languages written with Roman/Cyrillic/Greek/Semitic alphabets), and make that a default, which might be finessed with an explicit language tag, which might modify the default delimiter list. 2) Allow for the use of specific word-break and work-inclusion tags that would work in any lingusitic context, or where an override is required. Rick Gordon ------------------ On 12/11/10 at 11:13 PM +0100, Gabriele Romanato wrote in a message entitled "[css-d] ::first-word pseudo-element (and other pseudo-ideas": >I'm following an interesting discussion on www-style about new ideas for new >pseudo-elements in CSS3. Latest entries concern the ::first-word >pseudo-element. I quote the most relevant ones: > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Pierre Bertet wrote: > >>But the ::first-letter already do this, defining a "letter", wich is >>not very clear too. To clarify this, the CSS3 Selectors spec refers to >>the Unicode Standard Annex #29 [1]. >>This document seems very complex to me, but it also contains a "Word >>Boundaries" section, which seems to defines exactly that. > >>So my questions are: >>This section could it not be used to clarify what a "word" is? > >The extensive caveats in the notes to that section of TUS Annex #29 would need >to be taken into account. Word boundary identification needs to be tailored >for many languages, and the basic Unicode mechanism only aims to provide 'as >workable a default as possible'. > >Words -- and syllables, which present similar issues for selecting appropriate >text elements for styling -- are units of spoken language that may or may not >be easily isolated as units in written language, depending on particular >writing systems as applied to particular languages. In some systems, e.g. >Thai, word selection is only possible with dictionary support. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >So the point is that it doesn't exist a clear definition of word (in its >textual representation, but, ouch, also in linguistics) and for that reason >this proposal has been rejected. But there are other interesting ideas of this >sort, such as: > >1. nth-line() > Pseudo-class. It should select the nth-line of a block. But is there a > definition of line that could be accepted? > >2. nth-word() > Pseudo-class. See the objections above. > > >The point is that we all have good ideas and hints on CSS, but the sad truth >is that on www-style they don't pass the first reader comments. >Anyway, I encourage you on following these discussions because there's always >something new to learn. > >Good night, (my time, Rome CET) > >G. :-) > >http://www.css-zibaldone.com >http://www.css-zibaldone.com/test/ (English) >http://www.css-zibaldone.com/articles/ (English) >http://onwebdev.blogspot.com/ (English) > > > > > > > > >______________________________________________________________________ >css-discuss [[email protected]] >http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d >List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ >List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html >Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/ -- ___________________________________________________ RICK GORDON EMERALD VALLEY GRAPHICS AND CONSULTING ___________________________________________________ WWW: http://www.shelterpub.com ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [[email protected]] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
