Documentation improvements - RTL and others (flutter/engine#4248)

engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/text.dart

@@ -559,6 +559,89 @@ class ParagraphStyle {
 }
 
 /// A direction in which text flows.
+///
+/// Some languages are written from the left to the right (for example, English,
+/// Tamil, or Chinese), while others are written from the right to the left (for
+/// example Aramaic, Hebrew, or Urdu). Some are also written in a mixture, for
+/// example Arabic is mostly written right-to-left, with numerals written
+/// left-to-right.
+///
+/// The text direction must be provided to APIs that render text or lay out
+/// boxes horizontally, so that they can determine which direction to start in:
+/// either right-to-left, [TextDirection.rtl]; or left-to-right,
+/// [TextDirection.ltr].
+///
+/// ## Design discussion
+///
+/// Flutter is designed to address the needs of applications written in any of
+/// the world's currently-used languages, whether they use a right-to-left or
+/// left-to-right writing direction. Flutter does not support other writing
+/// modes, such as vertical text or boustrophedon text, as these are rarely used
+/// in computer programs.
+///
+/// It is common when developing user interface frameworks to pick a default
+/// text direction — typically left-to-right, the direction most familiar to the
+/// engineers working on the framework — because this simplifies the development
+/// of applications on the platform. Unfortunately, this frequently results in
+/// the platform having unexpected left-to-right biases or assumptions, as
+/// engineers will typically miss places where they need to support
+/// right-to-left text. This then results in bugs that only manifest in
+/// right-to-left environments.
+///
+/// In an effort to minimize the extent to which Flutter experiences this
+/// category of issues, the lowest levels of the Flutter framework do not have a
+/// default text reading direction. Any time a reading direction is necessary,
+/// for example when text is to be displayed, or when a
+/// writing-direction-dependent value is to be interpreted, the reading
+/// direction must be explicitly specified. Where possible, such as in `switch`
+/// statements, the right-to-left case is listed first, to avoid the impression
+/// that it is an afterthought.
+///
+/// At the higher levels (specifically starting at the widgets library), an
+/// ambient [Directionality] is introduced, which provides a default. Thus, for
+/// instance, a [Text] widget in the scope of a [MaterialApp] widget does not
+/// need to be given an explicit writing direction. The [Directionality.of]
+/// static method can be used to obtain the ambient text direction for a
+/// particular [BuildContext].
+///
+/// ### Known left-to-right biases in Flutter
+///
+/// Despite the design intent described above, certain left-to-right biases have
+/// nonetheless crept into Flutter's design. These include:
+///
+///  * The [Canvas] origin is at the top left, and the x-axis increases in a
+///    left-to-right direction.
+///
+///  * The default localization in the widgets and material libraries is
+///    American English, which is left-to-right.
+///
+/// ### Visual properties vs directional properties
+///
+/// Many classes in the Flutter framework are offered in two versions, a
+/// visually-oriented variant, and a text-direction-dependent variant. For
+/// example, [EdgeInsets] is described in terms of top, left, right, and bottom,
+/// while [EdgeInsetsDirectional] is described in terms of top, start, end, and
+/// bottom, where start and end correspond to right and left in right-to-left
+/// text and left and right in left-to-right text.
+///
+/// There are distinct use cases for each of these variants.
+///
+/// Text-direction-dependent variants are useful when developing user interfaces
+/// that should "flip" with the text direction. For example, a paragraph of text
+/// in English will typically be left-aligned and a quote will be indented from
+/// the left, while in Arabic it will be right-aligned and indented from the
+/// right. Both of these cases are described by the direction-dependent
+/// [TextAlign.start] and [EdgeInsetsDirectional.start].
+///
+/// In contrast, the visual variants are useful when the text direction is known
+/// and not affected by the reading direction. For example, an application
+/// giving driving directions might show a "turn left" arrow on the left and a
+/// "turn right" arrow on the right — and would do so whether the application
+/// was localized to French (left-to-right) or Hebrew (right-to-left).
+///
+/// In practice, it is also expected that many developers will only be
+/// targeting one language, and in that case it may be simpler to think in
+/// visual terms.
 // The order of this enum must match the order of the values in TextDirection.h's TextDirection.
 enum TextDirection {
   /// The text flows from right to left (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew).

engine/src/flutter/lib/ui/window.dart

@@ -470,7 +470,7 @@ class Window {
   /// arbitrary data.
   ///
   /// Message handlers must call the function given in the `callback` parameter.
-  /// If the handler does not need to respond, the handler should pass `null` to
+  /// If the handler does not need to respond, the handler should pass null to
   /// the callback.
   ///
   /// The framework invokes this callback in the same zone in which the

engine/src/flutter/shell/platform/darwin/ios/framework/Headers/FlutterCodecs.h

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ FLUTTER_EXPORT
 
  On the Dart side, these values are represented as follows:
 
- - `nil` or `NSNull`: `null`
+ - `nil` or `NSNull`: null
  - `NSNumber`: `bool`, `int`, or `double`, depending on the contained value.
  - `FlutterStandardBigInteger`: `int`
  - `NSString`: `String`