Ruby

Ruby End Tag: Required Support Key: 2 \| 3 \| 3.2 \| 4 \| *IE5B2* \| M \| N \| O	What is it? Attributes Tag Example	Parent/Content Model Tips & Tricks Browser Peculiarities
= Index DOT Html by Brian Wilson [bloo@blooberry.com] =

What is it?: A ruby is a content pair - a main content portion (Ruby Base - RB) along with content that serves as a helper or caption to the main content (Ruby Text - RT.) The helper/caption content usually serves as a pronunciation aid, but can serve other purposes as well. While the need for this is minimal in western languages, the concept is best illustrated with a far eastern language like Japanese.

With a character set as complex as Chinese, some characters are used rarely and are thus not as easily recognizable by younger children or possibly many adults. In Japanese writing, the phonetic Hiragana alphabet is used to pair phonetic 'helper' readings (called Furigana or Yomigana in Japanese) with the chinese character counterpart.

A Ruby element contains one or more Ruby Base/Text pairs. Each Ruby Base (RB) element is followed by its optional Ruby Text (RT) element. End tags for both of these elements are optional. When rendered, Ruby Text content is always located above the Ruby Base content.

Common Attributes
%Core%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE5B2 | M | N | O
%Events%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE5B2 | M | N | O
%Language%: 2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE5B2 | M | N | O
Specific Attributes
Name
2 | 3 | 3.2 | 4 | IE5B2 | M | N | O: Required? No; Description:
This attribute assigns a symbolic name to the ruby pair in order to use as a hyperlink destination or as a identification reference.; Values: Alphanumeric characters.

Tips & Tricks

DTD Note: I chose to use only 'in-line content' as the content model - while Block structures can exist within a Ruby element, some interesting behaviors are apparent. Images render fine also, but not form widgets.

Browser Peculiarities

Internet Explorer 5.0 Beta 2: Using block elements in the Ruby Base places the Ruby Text content BELOW the Ruby Base. This does not seem to be the intention of the implementation of Rubies, so the behavior may change by the final release.