w3c / w3c/mathml-core

lspace/rspace have confusing names

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#232 7 comments 1 reaction 1 assignee View on GitHub

@davidcarlisle is already working on this.

Since Aug 11, 2025.

need specification update
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Description

(This is part of the I18n WG review.)

3.2.4 Operator, Fence, Separator or Accent
https://www.w3.org/TR/mathml-core/#operator-fence-separator-or-accent-mo

From the algorithm in 3.3.1.2 Layout of <mrow> it follows that the lspace and rspace attributes of an element add space before, respectively after the element. In a right-to-left formula, that means lspace is on the right and rspace on the left. The names suggest otherwise and when the attributes were created, some 28 years ago, they actually did mean left and right.

To avoid confusion, maybe the spec should explicitly say, in a note, that ‘l’ does not mean ‘left’. (There is an image, figure 10 that contains the words ‘leading’ and ‘trailing’, but doesn't explicitly link them to lspace and rspace.)

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