As currently specified (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#the-dir-attribute), dir=auto determines an element's directionality by scanning the element's text node descendants.

Unfortunately, this spec does not give sufficient consideration to <input> and <textarea> nodes, for which dir=auto was always envisioned to work based on their current value, i.e. to potentially change the element's directionality when the user types into them. As a result, dir=auto as currently implemented in WebKit does not do anything useful for input elements, and only works on a textarea's initial value, without changing as the user modifies it.

Furthermore, a dir=auto element's directionality should not be dependent on the text nodes in a descendant <textarea>, since these usually do not change dynamically when the user types into the textarea, and since a textarea should behave in this regard just like an input element.

Thus:

- For input and textarea elements with dir=auto, the directionality should be determined not by the element's descendants, but by the element's current value, and should change as the latter changes.

- For other elements, the text node descendants under a descendant textarea element should be excluded, just like those in script and style elements.