HTML Ruby Markup Extensions 2024-05-23

[frivoal]

• name of spec to be reviewed: HTML Ruby Markup Extensions

• URL of spec: https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/WD-html-ruby-extensions-20240523/

• Current Rec phase: Working Draft, recently restored from having been temporarily discontinued as a Note

• What and when is your next expected transition: no specific date has been decided, but significant changes are not anticipated before CR, and there exist some implementations, so absent new problematic feedback, we may be in a good shape for moving to and beyond CR before long. Autumn maybe?

• What has changed since any previous review? The spec had been discontinued for some years, so any review is at this point ancient. Should be reviewed from scratch.

• Please point to the results of your self-review: Accessibility self review html-ruby#13

• Where and how to file issues arising: Please open individual issues in https://github.com/w3c/html-ruby/issues

• Pointer to any explainer for the spec:
  An accessibility-focused introduction/explainer is included in the self-review: Accessibility self review html-ruby#13.

  Beyond that, the spec is intended to contain its own explainer. Specifically:

  • https://www.w3.org/TR/html-ruby-extensions/#intro gives a general intro to the problem space
  • https://www.w3.org/TR/html-ruby-extensions/#relations gives an high level overview of how this relates to the HTML spec
  • https://www.w3.org/TR/html-ruby-extensions/#diff-html gets into the specifics of the motivations for proposing changes to the HTML model
  • The spec has numerous examples. In particular, https://www.w3.org/TR/html-ruby-extensions/#ruby-compound is an author-centric non-normative section focused on illustrating both how you're supposed to use the markup patterns the spec defines and enables, and why you'd want to.

  Also, The i18n group has produced a variety of articles about ruby and its needs over the years, in line with what this spec is defining. https://www.w3.org/International/articles/ruby/markup.en is particularly relevant, but there are more if desired.

  Further, this somewhat old but still relevant blog post covers the why and the what of this design quite extensively: https://fantasai.inkedblade.net/weblog/2011/ruby/

Other comments:

Ruby lies at the intersection of i18n and a11y. The motivations, challenges to be overcome, and solutions offered can be challenging to understand without familiarity with east-asian writing and typographic traditions. If that would be useful, I am happy to join a call to give additional information or answer questions.