[iip] ::first-letter selection fails on conjuncts only (#83)

r12a has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/iip:

== ::first-letter selection fails on conjuncts only ==
To select the characters to which styling is applied, it is possible to manually mark up the initial letters and apply styling to them. However, it is more flexible and easier to use the CSS ::first-letter pseudo-element.

An <a href="https://w3c.github.io/i18n-tests/css-text/interactive/int-first-letter-000.html">interactive test</a> is available, and a <a href="https://github.com/w3c/i18n-tests/wiki/Test-script-for-first-letter">test script</a>.

The tests show that <span class="pass">Firefox</span>, <span class="pass">Chrome</span>, and <span class="pass">Safari</span> all handle consonant plus pulli, and consonant plus vowel-sign combinations correctly, include prescript vowel-signs. They also handle typical punctuation that occurs at the beginning of a Tamil paragraph.

<span class="fail">Chrome</span> and <span class="fail">Safari</span>, however, fail to treat as a unit the KSHA conjunct  (although it's not clear that any Tamil words begin with that sequence of characters) and SHRI conjuncts, whether the latter is spelled with ஸ or ஶ. The latter conjunct does begin a few words, such as <span lang="ta">ஶ்ரீநகர்</span>. <span class="pass">Firefox</span> selects the whole conjunct in all cases.

The impact here is advanced, since the impact of the failures cited here on the user is likely to be very small, especially since they can resort to markup in the rare cases where the conjuncts are not properly handled.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/iip/issues/83 using your GitHub account

Received on Tuesday, 4 February 2020 18:42:03 UTC