Javanese Script Gap Analysis

W3C Group Draft Note

More details about this document
This version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/DNOTE-java-gap-20240816/
Latest published version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/java-gap/
Latest editor's draft:
https://w3c.github.io/sealreq/gap-analysis/java-gap
History:
https://www.w3.org/standards/history/java-gap/
Commit history
Editor:
(W3C)
Feedback:
GitHub w3c/sealreq (pull requests, new issue, open issues)

Abstract

This document describes and prioritises gaps for the support of the Javanese script on the Web and in eBooks. In particular, it is concerned with text layout. It checks that needed features are supported in W3C specifications, such as HTML and CSS and those relating to digital publications. It also checks whether the features have been implemented in browsers and ereaders.

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document describes and prioritises gaps for the support of the Javanese script on the Web and in eBooks. In particular, it is concerned with text layout. It checks that needed features are supported in W3C specifications, in particular HTML and CSS and those relating to digital publications. It also checks whether the features have been implemented in browsers and ereaders. It is linked to from the language matrix that tracks Web support for many languages.

The editor's draft of this document is being developed in the GitHub repository Southeast Asian Language Enablement (sealreq), with contributors from the W3C Internationalization Interest Group. It is published by the Internationalization Working Group. The end target for this document is a Working Group Note.

This document was published by the Internationalization Working Group as a Group Draft Note using the Note track.

Group Draft Notes are not endorsed by W3C nor its Members.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

The W3C Patent Policy does not carry any licensing requirements or commitments on this document.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.

1. Introduction

1.1 Contributors

This document was created by Richard Ishida.

See also the GitHub contributors list for the Southeast Asian Language Enablement project, and the discussions related to the Javanese script.

1.2 About this document

The W3C needs to make sure that the needs of scripts and languages around the world are built in to technologies such as HTML, CSS, SVG, etc. so that Web pages and eBooks can look and behave as people expect around the world.

This page documents difficulties that people encounter when trying to use languages written in the Javanese script on the Web.

Having identified an issue, it investigates the current status with regards to web specifications and implementations by user agents (browsers, e-readers, etc.), and attempts to prioritise the severity of the issue for web users.

1.3 Prioritization

This document not only describes gaps, it also attempts to prioritise them in terms of the impact on the local user. The prioritisation is indicated by colour.

Key:

It is important to note that these colours do not indicate to what extent a particular feature is broken. They indicate the impact of a broken or missing feature on the content author or end user.

Basic styling is the level that would be generally accepted as sufficient for most Web pages. Advanced level support would include additional features one might expect to include in ebooks or other advanced typographic formats. There may be features of a script or language that are not supported on the Web, but that are not generally regarded as necessary (usually archaic or obscure features). In this case, the feature can be described here, but the status should be marked as OK.

The decision as to what priority level is assigned to a described gap is down to the experts doing the gap analysis. It may not always be straightforward to decide. If a given section in this document refers to more than one feature that is broken, each with different impacts on Web users, the priority for the section should be the lowest denominator.

A cell can be scored as OK if the feature in question is specified in an appropriate specification, and is supported by user agents. A specification that is in CR or later and has two implementations in 'major' browsers will count. This means that the feature may not be supported in all browsers yet. (At some point in the future we may try to distinguish, visually, whether support is available in a specification but still pending in major browsers or applications.)

2. Text direction

See also General page layout & progression for features such as column layout, page turning direction, etc. that are affected by text direction.

2.1 Vertical text

Are the script requirements for vertically oriented text met? What about if you mix vertical text with scripts that are normally only horizontal? Do you need a switch to use different characters in vertical vs. horizontal text? Does the browser support short runs of horizontal text in vertical lines (tate-chu-yoko in Japanese) as expected? Is the orientation of characters and the directional ordering of characters supported as needed?

2.2 Bidirectional text

If this script runs right-to-left, are there any issues when handling that? Is bidirectional text adequately supported? What about numbers and expressions? Do the Unicode bidi controls and HTML markup provide the support needed? Is isolation of directional runs problematic?

3. Glyph shaping & positioning

3.1 Fonts & font styles

Do the standard fallback fonts used in browsers (eg. serif, sans-serif, cursive, etc.) match expectations? Are special font or OpenType features needed for this script that are not available?

#37 Few Javanese fonts available, and they are problematic

Languages: jv 2

There are only a handful of Javanese script fonts. (Google's original Javanese Noto font was disliked, but Google updated it.)

The most popular font appears to be Tuladha Jejeg, but that requires Graphite for rendering, so it only works properly on Firefox.

3.2 Context-based shaping and positioning

Does the script in question require additional user control features to support alterations to the position or shape of glyphs, for example adjusting the distance between the base text and diacritics, or changing the glyphs used in a systematic way? Do you need to be able to compose/decompose conjuncts, or show characters that are otherwise hidden, etc?

3.3 Letterform slopes, weights, & italics

This covers ways of modifying the glyphs, such as for italicisation, bolding, oblique, etc. Do italic fonts lean in the right direction? Is synthesised italicisation problematic? Are there other problems relating to bolding or italicisation - perhaps relating to generalised assumptions of applicability?

3.4 Cursive text

If this script is cursive (eg. Arabic, N’Ko, Syriac, etc), are there problems or needed features related to the handling of cursive text? Do cursive links break if parts of a word are marked up or styled? Do Unicode joiner and non-joiner characters behave as expected?

3.5 Case & other character transforms

Does your script need special text transforms that are not supported? Does your script convert letters to uppercase, capitalised and lowercase alternatives according to your typographic needs? Do you need to to convert between half-width and full-width presentation forms?

4. Typographic units

4.1 Characters & encoding

Are there any character repertoire issues preventing use of this script on the Web? Do variation selectors need attention? Are there any other encoding-related issues?

4.2 Grapheme/word segmentation & selection

This is about how text is divided into graphemes, words, sentences, etc., and behaviour associated with that. Do Unicode grapheme clusters appropriately segment character units for your script? When you double- or triple-click on the text, is the expected range of characters highlighted? When you move through the text with the cursor, or backspace, etc. do you see the expected behaviour? (Some of the answers to these questions may be picker up in other sections, such as line-breaking, or initial-letter styling.)

#38 Double-click doesn't highlight a word in Javanese

Languages: jv 1

Double-click doesn't highlight a word. Instead, it highlights a whole phrase between spaces.

5. Punctuation & inline features

5.1 Phrase & section boundaries

Are there specific problems related to punctuation or the interaction of the text with punctuation (for example separation of punctuation from previous text, but allowing no line break between)? Are there issues related to handling of abbreviation, ellipsis, or iteration? Are there problems related to bracketing information or demarcating things such as proper nouns, etc?

5.2 Quotations & citations

Are there any issues when dealing with quotations marks, especially when nested? Should block quotes be indented or handled specially?

#39 The q element doesn't produce the correct quotation marks for Javanese

Languages: jv 2

This issue is applicable to Javanese when written in the Javanese script.

Javanese script text doesn't normally use western quote marks to demarcate quotations. Instead, it uses ꧊ [U+A9CA JAVANESE PADA ADEG], or ꧌ [U+A9CC JAVANESE PADA PISELEH] and ꧍ [U+A9CD JAVANESE TURNED PADA PISELEH]. (See issue 8.)

The GAP
The q element produces western quote marks in Gecko, Blink, and Webkit. (Gecko currently doesn't set default quotes at all based on the language of the content.)

css-content says that for the auto value of the quotes property, A typographically appropriate used value for quotes is automatically chosen by the UA based on the content language of the element and/or its parent.

In a note, the spec points developers to CLDR for information about typographically appropriate quotation marks, but CLDR doesn't have data for the Javanese script. The note does, however, go on to say that other sources of information may be appropriate (and if used, should be submitted to CLDR).

Priority
Marking this as advanced, because use of the q element is optional. Quote characters can be used instead (although they are sometimes not as convenient), or the content author can add explicit styling for the q element using the quotes property – although that has to be done for every piece of content.

Tests & results
interactive test, The q element will produce Javanese script parentheses when used in Javanese script text.

Action taken
tbd

Outcomes
tbd

5.3 Emphasis & highlighting

How are emphasis and highlighting achieved? If lines or marks are drawn alongside, over or through the text, do they need to be a special distance from the text itself? Is it important to skip characters when underlining, etc? How do things change for vertically set text?

5.4 Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

What characters or other methods are used to indicate abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition?

5.5 Inline notes & annotations

The ruby spec currently specifies an initial subset of requirements for fine-tuning the typography of phonetic and semantic annotations of East Asian text, including furigana, pinyin and zhuyin fuhao systems. Is is adequate for what it sets out to do? What other controls will be needed in the future? What about other types of inline annotation, such as warichu? (For referent-type notes such as footnotes, see below.)

5.6 Text decoration & other inline features

This is about ways of marking text (see also specific sections dedicated to quotations and inline notes/annotations). Is it possible to express emphasis or highlight content as expected? Bold, italic and under-/over-lines are not always appropriate, and some scripts have their own unique ways of doing things, that are not in the Western tradition at all. Text delimiters mark certain items or sections off from the main text, such as book names in Chinese, quotations, head markers in Tibetan, etc, and often involve the use of punctuation. Is there any behaviour that isn't well supported, such as overlines for numeric digits in Syriac? Are there issues about the positioning or use of underlines? Some aspects related to the drawing of lines alongside or through text involve local typographic considerations. Do underlines need to be broken in special ways for this script? Do you need support for additional line shapes or widths? Does the distance or position of the lines relative to the text need to vary in ways that are not achievable? Are lines correctly drawn relative to vertical text?

5.7 Data formats & numbers

If the script has its own set of number digits, are there any issues in how they are used? Does the script or language use special format patterns that are problematic (eg. 12,34,000 in India)? What about date/time formats and selection - and are non-Gregorian calendars needed? Do percent signs and other symbols associated with number work correctly, and do numbers need special decorations, (like in Ethiopic or Syriac)? How about the management of personal names, addresses, etc. in web pages: are there issues?

6. Line and paragraph layout

6.1 Line breaking & hyphenation

Does the browser capture the rules about the way text in your script wraps when it hits the end of a line? Does line-breaking wrap whole 'words' at a time, or characters, or something else (such as syllables in Tibetan and Javanese)? What characters should not appear at the end or start of a line, and what should be done to prevent that?

#40 Text wrapping fails for Javanese & other SE Asian scripts

Languages: jv 0

This issue is applicable to text written in the following scripts: Balinese, Batak, Brahmi, (Eastern) Cham, Dives Akuru, Grantha, Gurung Khema, Javanese, Kawi, Makasar, and Tulu Tigalari.

Words are not separated by spaces in the Javanese orthography. Javanese is also one of a small number of scripts where an initial consonant for a word may be subjoined below the final consonant of the preceding word. Because these stacked consonants cannot be split, segmentation for line-breaking, etc. uses orthographic syllables as a unit, where orthographic means a character or stack of characters with all associated combining marks.

Unlike Thai, which uses dictionary lookup to wrap word-by-word, the basic break points in Javanese can be calculated using a grammar for syllables. (There are likely to be additional considerations to check related to punctuation, digits, etc.)

See this discussion for examples.

It is possible to fudge things, using CSS properties, so that the text wraps, but the resulting line breaks are not always correct. It is also possible to make the breaking happen by inserting ZWSP at appropriate places, but we cannot expect Javanese users to do that accurately and consistently.

More:

The GAP
Gecko and Blink don't wrap at all in rendered HTML. In the textarea, however, lines ARE broken by orthographic syllables in a textarea element. Webkit also fails in HTML. In the textarea it is inconsistent, sometimes wrapping sequences of characters, sometimes orthographic syllables, sometimes longer sequences, sometimes it does the latter then pulls back some characters from the 2nd line as the width continues to shrink.

Priority
This section marked as broken because browsers do not apply the necessary algorithm to to insert line-break opportunities at orthographic syllable boundaries for Javanese text in normal HTML. As a result, a line of text tends to run off the right edge of the window.

Tests & results
Interactive test, Text should wrap to the next line at the line end

Interactive test, Text should wrap to the next line at ZWSP

All browser engines tested break lines as expected if ZWSP is inserted between all breakable syllables.

Action taken
Line breaking at orthographic syllable boundaries for Javanese and several other scripts was specified in the Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm in Unicode 15.1 based on L2/22-080R2. ICU has been updated and has started to roll out to browsers and platforms. (From Norbert Lindenberg)

Bug report: Gecko

Outcomes
Blink and WebKit browsers now break lines as expected.

Gecko browsers still fail to wrap in rendered HTML, but do wrap in a textarea control.

6.2 Text alignment & justification

When text in a paragraph needs to have flush lines down both sides, does it follow the rules for your script? Does the script need assistance to conform to a grid pattern? Does your script allow punctuation to hang outside the text box at the start or end of a line? Where adjustments are need to make a line flush, how is that done? Do you shrink/stretch space between words and/or letters? Are word baselines stretched, as in Arabic? What about paragraph indents, or the need for logical alignment keywords, such as start/end, rather than left/right?

6.3 Text spacing

Some scripts create emphasis or other effects by spacing out the words, letters or syllables in a word. Are there requirements for this script/language that are unsupported? (For justification related spacing, see below.)

6.4 Baselines, line-height, etc

Does the browser support requirements for baseline alignment between mixed scripts and in general?

6.5 Lists, counters, etc.

The CSS Counter Styles specification describes a limited set of simple and complex styles for counters to be used in list numbering, chapter heading numbering, etc.The rules plus more counter styles (totalling around 120 for over 30 scripts) are listed in the document Ready-made Counter Styles. Do these cover your needs? Are the details correct? Are there other aspects related to counters and lists that need to be addressed?

6.6 Styling initials

Does the browser or ereader correctly handle special styling of the initial letter of a line or paragraph, such as for drop caps or similar? How about the size relationship between the large letter and the lines alongide? where does the large letter anchor relative to the lines alongside? is it normal to include initial quote marks in the large letter? is the large letter really a syllable? etc. Are all of these things working as expected?

7. Page & book layout

7.1 General page layout & progression

How are the main text area and ancilliary areas positioned and defined? Are there any special requirements here, such as dimensions in characters for the Japanese kihon hanmen? The book cover for scripts that are read right-to-left scripts is on the right of the spine, rather than the left. Is that provided for? When content can flow vertically and to the left or right, how do you specify the location of objects, text, etc. relative to the flow? For example, keywords 'left' and 'right' are likely to need to be reversed for pages written in English and page written in Arabic. Do tables and grid layouts work as expected? How do columns work in vertical text? Can you mix block of vertical and horizontal text correctly? Does text scroll in the expected direction? Other topics that belong here include any local requirements for things such as printer marks, tables of contents and indexes.

7.2 Grids & tables

Does the script have special requirements for character grids or tables?

7.3 Footnotes, endnotes, etc.

Does your script have special requirements for footnotes, endnotes or other necessary annotations of this kind in the way needed for your culture? (There is a section above for purely inline annotations, such as ruby or warichu. This section is more about annotation systems that separate the reference marks and the content of the notes.)

7.4 Page headers, footers, etc.

Are there special conventions for page numbering, or the way that running headers and the like are handled?

7.5 Forms & user interaction

Are vertical form controls well supported? In right-to-left scripts, is it possible to set the base direction for a form field? Is the scroll bar on the correct side? etc.

8. Other

8.1 Culture-specific features

Sometimes a script or language does things that are not common outside of its sphere of influence. This is a loose bag of additional items that weren't previously mentioned. This section may also be relevant for observations related to locale formats (such as number, date, currency, format support).

8.2 What else?

There are many other CSS modules which may need review for script-specific requirements, not to mention the SVG, HTML, Speech, MathML and other specifications. What else is likely to cause problems for worldwide deployment of the Web, and what requirements need to be addressed to make the Web function well locally?

Show summary