Re: Clarrification Needed: Implications of writing mode on region-body

At 07:48 2003 03 12 -0600, W. Eliot Kimber wrote:

>Editors,
>
>There is disagreement between XSL Formatter and XEP over the implication of setting writing-mode on region-body and my reading of the spec cannot find a clear justification for either interpretation.
>
>In section 7.27.7, the definition of the writing-mode property, the spec says:
>
><quote>
>o When "writing-mode" is applied to the fo:region-*, it defines the column-progression within each region. The inline-progression-direction is used to determine the stacking direction for columns (and the default flow order of text from column-to-column).
>
>o To change the "writing-mode" within an fo:flow or fo:static-content, either the fo:block-container or the fo:inline-container, as appropriate, should be used.
></quote>
>
>With XEP, setting writing-mode on region-body only changes the positions of the columns on the page--it does not affect the writing mode of the areas within the flow contained within the region body.
>
>With XSL Formatter, the writing mode is propogated to the areas within the region body.
>
>XEP's approach is supported by two pieces of evidence I can find:
>
>- The fact that different page masters can have different writing modes for region-body, which would only make sense if the intent is to only affect the position of columns (enabling inside/outside column position layouts, which are otherwise impossible to achieve with XSL-FO 1.0).
>
>- The two bullets above, which can be read as limiting the affect of writing mode on simple-page-master and region-body, effectively creating a special case that overides the normal propogation rules for the writing-mode property (that is, that the writing mode of a containing reference area (region-body) determines the writing mode of normal areas within that reference area (areas within the flow)).
>
>XSL Formatter's approach is supported by the fact that writing-mode is set on reference areas and that there is no other direct way to set the writing mode on a page sequence or flow except to set it on the body-region (which is the nearest ancestor reference area for the flow areas). The only other way to do it would be to put the entire flow into a block-container that sets the writing mode [see note below]. Also, the two bullets above do not explicitly say that they are defining the *only* effects of writing-mode when specified on simple-page-master or region-body, so they can be read as defining *additional* implications in addition to the normal implication of writing-mode on reference areas.
>
>Thus, my question is this:
>
>Does setting writing-mode on simple-page-master or region-* affect *only* the placement of page regions or columns or does it also determine the default writing mode of any contained areas?

RESOLUTION: The former because inheritance only works in the FO tree.

Paul Grosso
for the XSL FO SG