[Selectors] Scripts, ie, alphabets

[Dario de Judicibus]

It looks like there is no way, currently, to select elements or part of
element content by script, that is, by alphabet. An alphabet is DIFFERENT
from a language. I can use the same alphabet to write in different
languages, as well as, I can write the SAME language in more than one
alphabet.

--
Dario de Judicibus - Rome, Italy (EU)
Site: http://www.dejudicibus.it
Blog: http://lindipendente.splinder.com

[Alan J. Flavell]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:

It looks like there is no way, currently, to select elements or part of
element content by script, that is, by alphabet.
Indeed. You'd normally be advised to assign a "class", and to apply
it carefully to the affected portions of the marked-up content, so
that it could be addressed from CSS.

Did you have any particular styling intentions in mind? As a matter
of practical authoring in the face of actual browsers, we came to the
conclusion that in any mix of ltr and rtl writing systems, it's a good
idea to make comprehensive use of explicit dir="rtl" attributes
wherever they apply: you could certainly write CSS selectors which
addressed that specific attribute value (for browsers which implement
CSS attribute selector syntax).
An alphabet is DIFFERENT from a language.

Of course. Azeri can be and is written in three different scripts,
I'm told. Well, English can be transcribed into Japanese writing for
those who want to (and Japanese transcribed into Latin characters for
us to read). And so on. Transcribing the writing system does not in
any way change the *language*.

The terminology for writing systems is a bit unclear in WWW contexts.
Unicode refer to "Scripts", e.g "Middle Eastern Scripts", but when
taken out of context the term "script" can mean so many other things.
MS refer vaguely to writing systems as "language scripts", but, as
your posting indicates, this can be confusing.

Quite a proportion of scripts are not "alphabetic" (but syllabic - or
worse, cf. Chinese"), so your attempt to designate them as "alphabets"
isn't really wide enough. I'd be inclined to stick to the phrase
"writing system", in contexts where the term "script" isn't
sufficiently clear.

best

[Andreas Prilop]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Alan J. Flavell wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:
[ ... ]

I don't understand what he wants. Could you translate it
to plain English, Alan? ;-)

[Alan J. Flavell]

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, Andreas Prilop wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Alan J. Flavell wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:
[ ... ]

I don't understand what he wants. Could you translate it
to plain English, Alan? ;-)

As I understood it, he wants a CSS selector syntax which selects
precisely those characters in the HTML source which belong to a
specified writing system. For example, he wants to be able to write a
CSS selector which says "apply this style to all Cyrillic characters"
within its scope.

At least, that's the interpretation on which I based my answer.

h t h

[Harlan Messinger]

Alan J. Flavell wrote:

As I understood it, he wants a CSS selector syntax which selects
precisely those characters in the HTML source which belong to a
specified writing system. For example, he wants to be able to write a
CSS selector which says "apply this style to all Cyrillic characters"
within its scope.

At least, that's the interpretation on which I based my answer.

Ah. Which would require the browser to map each character to the segment
of the Unicode database from which it comes. That would slow things down
a bit, wouldn't it? And ought it treat differently those characters in
the Cyrillic section that are only in Serbian from those that are only
in Ukrainian from those that all Cyrillic writing systems share?

[Dario de Judicibus]

Alan J. Flavell wrote:

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, Andreas Prilop wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Alan J. Flavell wrote:

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:
[ ... ]

I don't understand what he wants. Could you translate it
to plain English, Alan? ;-)

As I understood it, he wants a CSS selector syntax which selects
precisely those characters in the HTML source which belong to a
specified writing system. For example, he wants to be able to write a
CSS selector which says "apply this style to all Cyrillic characters"
within its scope.

You are correct. Sorry for late reply but I was out of office.That is
exactly what I was looking for.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Dario de Judicibus - Italy (EU)
Site: http://www.dejudicibus.it/
Blog: http://lindipendente.splinder.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Andreas Prilop]

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:

For example, he wants to be able to write a
CSS selector which says "apply this style to all Cyrillic characters"
within its scope.

You are correct. Sorry for late reply but I was out of office.That is
exactly what I was looking for.

Please give a *concrete* example!
I don't understand how such a selector could be usefully applied.
To which script belong space, hyphen, digits?

--
Netscape 3.04 does everything I need, and it's utterly reliable.
Why should I switch? Peter T. Daniels in <news:sci.lang>

[Dario de Judicibus]

Andreas Prilop wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, Dario de Judicibus wrote:

For example, he wants to be able to write a
CSS selector which says "apply this style to all Cyrillic
characters" within its scope.

You are correct. Sorry for late reply but I was out of office.That is
exactly what I was looking for.

Please give a *concrete* example!
I don't understand how such a selector could be usefully applied.
To which script belong space, hyphen, digits?

Well, Unicode, for example, is made of specific named blocks. Each block
could be a target (e.g. General Punctuation). On the other hand, in a
specific encoding, for example ISO-8859-1, I could specify code ranges (e.g.
0xA0-0xFE).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Dario de Judicibus - Italy (EU)
Site: http://www.dejudicibus.it/
Blog: http://lindipendente.splinder.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Andreas Prilop]

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, I wrote to Dario de Judicibus:

Please give a *concrete* example!

Will you?

What do you want to achieve?