Difference between revisions of "Non Breaking Spaces Before Punctuation In French (espaces insécables)"

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== Configuration ==
 
== Configuration ==
<START TYPING HERE --- If this part is irrelevant state a reason for its absence.>
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Remember the option "Tools - AutoCorrect - Options - French punctuation" when updating.
 
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[[Specification_Template_Help#Configuration|Help]] | [[Configuration-Table|Configuration Table Template]]
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== File Format ==
 
== File Format ==

Revision as of 01:27, 18 September 2009

This specification is still in discussion.
Please read the Brain-Storming section.

You can also follow the discussion in French on dev@fr.openoffice.org.

Brain-Storming

ES: the goal is to make a balance between "everything we can make perfect" and help as many people as possible who are missing this feature.

  1. Provocative: Why do we implement this as a core feature while there's already a working extension for this (http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/insecable)?
    Note: This extension only works for Writer.
  2. Scope: "French". In which country? France, Switzerland, Belgium, Quebec, others? Which references should we have?
  3. Use always a simple non breaking space (HTML: &nbsp) or follow the subtle differentiations of the French typography rules using a so called "thin space" (espace fine) (HTML: &thinsp - which is a BREAKING space!) depending of the case?
    Note: MS-Word seems to (always) use the thin space...
    1. And then re-work the implementation of "Tools - AutoCorrect Options - Custom Quotes" when French is the current character language?
  4. Shouldn't we avoid to through a very language specific feature into the general AutoCorrect Options dialog? Create a new localized tab page?

References: http://unicode.org/udhr/n/notes_fra.html

Abstract

In French language, some punctuation signs like ; : ! ? need to have a (non breaking) space between them and the word placed before them.
The current specification describes the automatic insertion of the those spaces over the AutoCorrect Options.

References

Reference Document Check Location (URL)
Prerequisites [passed/failed] n/a
Product Requirement, RFE, Issue ID (required) [available/not available] 17169
Accessibility Check (required) PASSED
Test case specification (required) [available/not available] <PLEASE ENTER LOCATION HERE>
IDL Specification [available/not available] <PLEASE ENTER LOCATION HERE>
Software Specification Rules n/a n/a
Other, e.g. references to related specs, Product Concept Document http://unicode.org/udhr/n/notes_fra.html

Contacts

Role Name E-Mail Address
Developer Cédric Bosdonnat cedricbosdo@openoffice.org
Quality Assurance Éric Savary es@openoffice.org
Documentation Uwe Fischer ufi@openoffice.org
User Experience Cédric Bosdonnat
Éric Savary
cedricbosdo@openoffice.org
es@openoffice.org

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Acronym / Abbreviation Definition
<WYSIWYG> <What You See Is What You Get>

Detailed Specification IN PROGRESS!!!

Scope

It's the automatic insertion (1) of certain spaces (2) before some punctuation characters (3) in French (4).

  1. Automatic insertion
    This addresses automatic insertions like defined under "Tools - AutoCorrect - Options" while typing and afterward using "Format - AutoCorrect - Apply".
    This will not consist in expanding the list of possible replacements as defined under "Tools - AutoCorrect - Replace"
  2. Certain spaces
    The French typography uses 3 main spaces before the punctuation signs (See: http://unicode.org/udhr/n/notes_fra.html)
    - SPACE: U+0020
    - NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE: U+202F
    - NO-BREAK SPACE: U+00A0.
    The current implementation retains only the SPACE and the NO-BREAK SPACE (See section #Exclusion of the NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (U+202F)).
  3. Some punctuation characters
    We focused on four frequently used punctuation signs: ":", ";", "?" and "!".
    Other signs have already received AutoCorrect mechanisms (simple and double quotes).
  4. In French
    The typographic rules are not unified across the francophone countries
    Other rules apply in Canada (fr_CA).

Exclusion of the NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (U+202F)

While the traditional typography usages recommend the use of a space called "espace fine insécable", their electronic implementation as NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (U+202F) character reveals many drawbacks:

  • A minority of fonts contain this character
  • Many software (browsers) don't handle this character as no-break space.
    This would lead to unexpected layouts when exporting to HTML.
  • The original description of what "espace fine insécable" should be is not covered by the electronic standards.

See: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/french.html, Section "Spacing"
"The French language uses special spacing in connection with several punctuation characters, for example before an exclamation mark. For example, Lexique des Règles Typographiques en usage à l'Imprimerie Nationale says that there should be a "½ cadratin" wide space after an opening quotation mark and before a closing quotation mark. That would half an em space, i.e. an en space. Quite obviously, such spaces should be non-breaking, but there is no non-breaking en space in Unicode!"

  • The manual insertion (if needed) of this character requires much more manipulation ("Insert - Special Character") than a simple space ([Space] key) or the no-break space ([Ctrl+Shift+Space])

General francophone usages

(These usages correspond to the fr_FR, fr_BE and fr_CH locales)

The rule

The following table shows the space-character-space rules as officially defined in France (See: http://unicode.org/udhr/n/notes_fra.html)

before punctuation sign after
U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE
;
U+0020 SPACE
U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE
!
U+0020 SPACE
U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE
?
U+0020 SPACE
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
:
U+0020 SPACE


The Implementation

The following table shows the space-character-space implementation with regard to section Exclusion of the NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (U+202F)

before punctuation sign after
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
;
U+0020 SPACE
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
!
U+0020 SPACE
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
?
U+0020 SPACE
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
:
U+0020 SPACE

Usages effective in Canada (Québec)

(These usages correspond to the fr_CA locale)

The Rule and Implementation

The following table shows the space-character-space implementation as defined in http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/RESSOURCES/ti/espacements_20030605.pdf

before punctuation sign after
no space
;
U+0020 SPACE
no space
!
U+0020 SPACE
no space
?
U+0020 SPACE
U+00A0 NO-BREAK SPACE
:
U+0020 SPACE

UI

Option under "Tools - AutoCorrect - Options"
Default: ON.

Help | User Interface Element Templates | Example Spec

Accessibility

Accessibility is the responsibility of the I-Team, beginning with UX, DEV and QA, to ensure that the following requirements are fulfilled:

  1. Is the feature fully keyboard accessible?
    (Ex: "I can go everywhere and use every function using the keyboard only"

    Does not apply
  2. Have I specified visual alternatives for the case that the specified feature includes audio as output?
    Does not apply
  3. Are text alternatives for all icons and graphics available?
    Does not apply
  4. Don't provide important information in colors alone
    (Ex: marking important information hard coded in red)

    Does not apply
  5. Does the specified feature respect system settings for font, size, and color for all windows and user interface elements?
    Does not apply
  6. Have I ensured that flash rates do not exceed 2 hertz for blinking text, objects, or other elements? In any case, try to avoid flashing UI elements
    Does not apply
  7. Ensure that assistive technology (AT) (like ZoomText or Orca) is able to read everything.
    Does not apply

QUESTIONS?

If you need help while designing, implementing or testing the accessibility of the UI, ask/visit:

  1. The accessibility check list at the OpenOffice.org Wiki
  2. accessibility@ui.openoffice.org (The accessibility mailing lists, preferred)
  3. For specific implementation details, architecture: mt@openoffice.org (Malte Timmermann)
  4. For specific UX and testing questions: es@openoffice.org (Éric Savary)

Documentation

Context:
Help called on "Tools - AutoCorrect - Options - French punctuation"

Content:
"Inserts a no-break space before ";", "!", "?" ":" when the character language is set to French (France, Belgium, Switzerland) and before ":" only when the character language is set to French (Canada)"

Migration

Does not apply.

Configuration

Remember the option "Tools - AutoCorrect - Options - French punctuation" when updating.

File Format

Does not apply.

Open Issues

<State a bulleted list of issues Issue here>

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