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cliftonc / calipso

Calipso is a simple NodeJS content management system based on Express, Connect & Mongoose.
calip.so
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Stop using 'right' for a region name. #44

Closed adrinux closed 13 years ago

adrinux commented 13 years ago

I've noticed cleanSlate theme at least, and possibly other places, where 'right' is used as the name of a region for block content. Use of 'left' and 'right' for any column is best avoided if there is any possibility of using RTL languages like arabic, where 'right' content often ends up on the left of the page, and 'left' on the right.

At least, it makes my head hurt.

It's better to use 'first' and 'second', or other terms that refer to source order 'content prefix' etc.

jzacsh commented 13 years ago

I agree, this also allows a region to be moved (and not looking semantically incorrect/confusing), regardless of locale being RTL or not.

adrinux commented 13 years ago

Was going to assign this to myself...but I can't - must be reserved to project owners?

dennishall commented 13 years ago

Yes, "page-aside" would be good. ("page-" prefix since page subitems could feasibly have their own asides, which should similarly be subitem-name namespaced.) I would resolve it, but I'm totally slammed with other work right now.

raisch commented 13 years ago

Perhaps 'east' and 'west'?

adrinux commented 13 years ago

@raisch Re-read the original comment about RTL (right to left) languages like arabic and think about your suggestion again ;)

raisch commented 13 years ago

@adrinux, ;) My (albeit trivial) comment was based on the assumption that most "bidi" cultures will find recognizing the cardinal directions in context a simpler task than language specific signals like 'right' and 'left'. Consider how Google Maps defaults to a 'north==top' orientation for both Arabic ( http://maps.google.com/?hl=ar ) and Hebrew (http://maps.google.com/?hl=he) speakers.

cliftonc commented 13 years ago

I think east and west feels right (no pun intended), and is more common in panel layout libraries (e.g. http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/ext-4.0.2a/examples/layout/border.html), and happy to go with that as the default. I'll make some time this weekend to rename the references (unless someone else would like to have a go?) :)

adrinux commented 13 years ago

I don't see how east and west get around the original problem. That on multilingual sites a sidebar can switch from left to right, depending on language. So east will end up in the west and west in the east.

And then there is responsive design, where east and west may end up on top of each other.

For me terms that relate to source code order are the only ones that are helpful and flexible. 'First', 'Second' etc.

adrinux commented 13 years ago

Here's a high profile example: http://amnesty.org/ vs http://amnesty.org/ar

You can play with the language switcher yourselves, note how the sidebar switches sides. I don't think east and west swap sides.

(It has to be said this is a somewhat trivial issue, and not all that important right now – bit if calip.so were to take off, and be used for multilingual sites, it makes for a better Theme DX if you don't use regions with fixed directions).

cliftonc commented 13 years ago

In the end I've gone with 'side panel'. Thanks for the comments and input.