The problem with using Hebrew letters in the example is that most people
will not realize what is "logical" order and what is visual order. At
least with Latin characters they can know that the word is SDRAWKCAB.
8-)

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: www-html-request@w3.org [mailto:www-html-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Jukka K. Korpela
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 1:42 PM
To: www-html@w3.org
Subject: RE: 'dir' attribute on BIDI inline elements and actual browsers


On Tue, 19 Dec 2006, Paul Nelson (ATC) wrote:

> Because the Hebrew is a RTL script, the addition of the span does
> nothing to change the layout.

Technically, it's the formal directionality properties of _characters_ 
that matter here, by standards and specifications. They in turn have
been 
defined to reflect the nature of scripts, of course.

By the way, I find the examples in the HTML 4.01 specification
confusing, 
since it uses strings like HEBREW2 (consisting of Latin letters) instead

of actual Hebrew characters. In the presentation of the intended correct

rendering, the strings are spelled backwards, creating the impression of
GNIREDNER GNORW. Using a few easy Hebrew characters, explained in the 
text, would be more suitable.

-- 
Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/