RE: DR 09-0295 — WML: gridCols measurement units

[Jesper Lund Stocholm]

Hello gentlemen,

I was the one pushing for the mandatory unit specification in Beijing. I agree with Jirka that it is a bit odd to add artificial unit specifications, and that was not my intention when pushing for it. I was my understanding that requiring unit specifications in Strict would impose "simple" transformations when moving documents from Transitional to Strict. If there are oddities I was not aware of, I'd be happy to revisit the DR.

Also - I was quite ill most of the days in Beijing, so I would not rule out me missing something along the way :o).



Med venlig hilsen / Best regards

Jesper Lund Stocholm

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Rae [mailto:Chris.Rae at microsoft.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 8:33 PM
> To: Jirka Kosek
> Cc: e-SC34-WG4 at ecma-international.org
> Subject: RE: DR 09-0295 — WML: gridCols measurement units
> 
> Hi Jirka - I will let someone else justify the mandatory units, as I
> didn't actually agree with the idea and so I don't want to misrepresent
> it.
> 
> Regarding EMU, you're basically right. There are a couple of places where
> units were optional, but the default was actually EMUs (a unit that
> couldn't be specified in the string). ST_Coordinate being probably the
> biggest example, as it's used all over the place. As you surmise, we could
> of course convert these to other units before saving but given that EMUs
> are introduced elsewhere in the standard (they have their own whole
> subsection) I thought it made a bit more sense to add them to the units
> available. I would certainly be up for adding TWIPs if you think that's
> sensible.
> 
> I've added a definition to the table in 22.9.2.15, that's a good catch.
> I've also adopted the two-letter "uu" abbreviation, as I think that makes
> sense.
> 
> I've got a draft here but I'll wait for further comments before I
> circulate it again (mainly because my "turn track changes into formatting"
> macro doesn't deal very well with it!).
> 
> Chris
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jirka Kosek [mailto:jirka at kosek.cz]
> Sent: 20 January 2011 07:56
> To: Chris Rae
> Cc: e-SC34-WG4 at ecma-international.org
> Subject: Re: DR 09-0295 — WML: gridCols measurement units
> 
> Chris Rae wrote:
> 
> > This DR covers the introduction of the mandatory use of measurement
> > units in Strict for the various items that were given optional
> > measurement units at the BRM. We agreed in Beijing to accept the
> > resolution of this DR, and make measurement units mandatory in Strict.
> 
> Wow, I wasn't aware of this decision. I'm curious to know reasons why
> units were made mandatory if someone could spent some time elaborating on
> this (or is it in minutes from meeting, actually I don't see any minutes).
> 
> I haven't studied your documents with all consequences in mind, but
> definition of "emu" unit is missing. It should be part of table in
> "22.9.2.15 ST_UniversalMeasure (Universal Measurement)".
> 
> More on this -- personally I see it quite strange to introduce artificial
> units like "emu". Is the reason to have clear migration path from existing
> files without units which will not introduce any rounding errors? If so
> then probably additional units like "twips" should be added.
> 
> Also for more efficient parsing I suggest to always use two letter unit
> codes if units are going to be mandatory. We can use "uu" (universal
> unit) instead of "emu" (english/metric unit) as "em" has different meaning
> in languages like CSS and XSL-FO.
> 
> 			Jirka
> 
> --
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>   Jirka Kosek      e-mail: jirka at kosek.cz      http://xmlguru.cz
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