Twenty Twenty-One: full stop might be in wrong place

[wangql]

In classes/class-twenty-twenty-one-dark-mode.php:188:

__( 'Dark Mode is a device setting. If a visitor to your site requests it, your site will be shown with a dark background and light text. <a href="%s">Learn more about Dark Mode.</a>', 'twentytwentyone' ),

The full-stop should be put outside the </a> mark-up.

__( 'Dark Mode is a device setting. If a visitor to your site requests it, your site will be shown with a dark background and light text. <a href="%s">Learn more about Dark Mode</a>.', 'twentytwentyone' ),

In classes/class-twenty-twenty-one-dark-mode.php:188:
( 'Dark Mode is a device setting. If a visitor to your site requests it, your site will be shown with a dark background and light text. <a href="%s">Learn more about Dark Mode.</a>', 'twentytwentyone' ),

The full-stop should be put outside the </a> mark-up.
( 'Dark Mode is a device setting. If a visitor to your site requests it, your site will be shown with a dark

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51961

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[poena]

Hi!
Can you give a motivation to why the full stop should be outside?

The link text is the complete sentence, and not only part of a sentence:

<a href="%s">Learn more about Dark Mode.</a>

compared to:

Learn more about <a href="%s">Dark Mode</a>.

[wangql]

Replying to poena:

Hi!
Can you give a motivation to why the full stop should be outside?

The link text is the complete sentence, and not only part of a sentence:

<a href="%s">Learn more about Dark Mode.</a>

compared to:

Learn more about <a href="%s">Dark Mode</a>.

Hi. I thought the phrase "Learn something" itself refers to an action taken by admin, not a complete sentence. So the full stop might be put after </a> or be removed.

[mukesh27]

Hi there!

I have found a similar issue on the About page and reported - #51965

[SergeyBiryukov]

Hi there, welcome back to WordPress Trac! Thanks for the report.

Crossposting my comment from #51965.

As noted above, "Learn more about Dark Mode." is a complete sentence, so I think the full stop is in the correct place here.

This is consistent with some other strings in core, for example:

• "Check again" link​ on WordPress Updates screen:

  <a href="' ... '">' . __( 'Check again.' ) . '</a>'
  

• "Search for plugins" link​ on the Plugins screen:

  <a href=" ... '">' . __( 'Search for plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory.' ) . '</a>'
  

A similar conversation was also ​on Slack after 5.6 beta 4:

yui 04:21
<a href="%s">Switch to automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only.</a>
is it really meant to have dot before </a>?
helen 04:25
It’s the entire line, so yes.

That said, this appears to be not a hard and fast rule, there are some other arguments and considerations:
​https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/17331/should-a-full-sentence-html-link-include-the-period-in-the-linked-text

Ideally, if any changes should be made, we'd like to be consistent with this in core and bundled themes.

Marking this with the ui-copy focus for a native English speaker to chime in :)

[markscottrobson]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

Hi there, welcome back to WordPress Trac! Thanks for the report.

Crossposting my comment from #51965.

As noted above, "Learn more about Dark Mode." is a complete sentence, so I think the full stop is in the correct place here.

This is consistent with some other strings in core, for example:

• "Check again" link​ on WordPress Updates screen:

  <a href="' ... '">' . __( 'Check again.' ) . '</a>'
  

• "Search for plugins" link​ on the Plugins screen:

  <a href=" ... '">' . __( 'Search for plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory.' ) . '</a>'
  

A similar conversation was also ​on Slack after 5.6 beta 4:

yui 04:21
<a href="%s">Switch to automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only.</a>
is it really meant to have dot before </a>?
helen 04:25
It’s the entire line, so yes.

That said, this appears to be not a hard and fast rule, there are some other arguments and considerations:
​https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/17331/should-a-full-sentence-html-link-include-the-period-in-the-linked-text

Ideally, if any changes should be made, we'd like to be consistent with this in core and bundled themes.

Marking this with the ui-copy focus for a native English speaker to chime in :)

As a native UK English speaker, I would suggest that the text should be hyperlinked and not the punctuation. Most style guides would support this. Also, an underlined hyperlink looks strange if the full stop is underlined as well.

[sabernhardt]

Ultimately, I don't think either way is wrong, yet neither of them will look correct to everybody. Preferences likely reflect how a period is inside quotation marks here in the U.S. and the full stop is often outside the quotes in other countries.

We could continue to follow the rules given for parenthetical comments (text in round brackets), applying those rules to links. British and American style guides agree on adding the terminal punctuation inside with full sentences:

• ​Oxford University Style Guide
• ​Chicago Manual of Style
• ​AP Stylebook

Consider these:

1. All full sentences should remain completely intact inside links. (This includes any terminal punctuation.)
2. Moving the punctuation outside links is acceptable (as long as the WordPress style guide is updated to prefer it).

Of course, if the WordPress style guide discourages adding any full-sentence links instead, that could settle this more simply.

[sabernhardt]

After the linked article is published, a better option may become more apparent, but here's a rough idea for an edited sentence:

Learn more about <a href="%s">how to work with Dark Mode in this theme</a>.

[audrasjb]

i18n change after @sabernhardt’s comment

[audrasjb]

I think @sabernhardt’s proposal is the best option here. See 51961.diff.

[desrosj]

As noted above by @SergeyBiryukov, when this change is made, it should be done throughout core for consistency.

For that reason, I am electing not to include this change in the Twenty Twenty-One bug fix update being shipped later today.

I do have one question that does not seem to have been discussed yet. Are there any a11y considerations for including the . within <a> tags?

[audrasjb]

Good point @desrosj. AFAIK, it's indeed better to exclude it from the link as links may be fetched independentely by accessibility tools and keyboard navigation. That's not a huge deal BTW :)

[audrasjb]

As this ticket is not an urgent change, we agreed with @poena to move it to next major release.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Thanks for the patch!

It looks like there is no consensus yet that this string needs any changes, so I'm marking this for closure, unless anyone has strong feelings either way :)

[peterwilsoncc]

I agree with Sergey, without consensus this can be closed off.

As mentioned above, consistency is best so a more general ticket and larger patch to achieve that would be more ideal. As it would involve several string changes it's probably best done prior to a beta release to allow the polyglots to update translations as needed.