Add design doc for expression attributes (#458)

Co-authored-by: Addison Phillips <[email protected]>

exploration/0002-expression-attributes.md

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+# Expression Attributes
+
+<details>
+	<summary>Metadata</summary>
+	<dl>
+		<dt>Contributors</dt>
+		<dd>@eemeli</dd>
+		<dt>First proposed</dt>
+		<dd>2023-08-27</dd>
+		<dt>Pull Request</dt>
+		<dd><a href="https://github.com/unicode-org/message-format-wg/pull/458">#458</a></dd>
+	</dl>
+</details>
+
+## Objective
+
+Define how attributes may be attached to expressions.
+
+## Background
+
+Function options may influence the resolution, selection, and formatting of annotated expressions.
+These provide a great solution for options like `minFractionDigits`, `dateStyle`,
+or other similar factors that influence the formatted result.
+
+However, this single bag of options is not appropriate in all cases,
+in particular for attributes that pertain to the expression as a selector or a placeholder.
+For example, many of the [XLIFF 2 inline element] attributes don't really make sense as function options.
+
+[XLIFF 2 inline element]: http://docs.oasis-open.org/xliff/xliff-core/v2.1/os/xliff-core-v2.1-os.html#inlineelements
+
+## Use-Cases
+
+At least the following expression attributes should be considered:
+
+- Attributes with a formatting runtime impact:
+
+  - `fallback` — A value to use instead of the default fallback,
+    should the expression's primary formatting fail in some way.
+  - `locale` — An override for the locale used to format the expression.
+    Should be expressed as a non-empty sequence of BCP 47 language codes.
+  - `dir` — An override for the LTR/RTL/auto directionality of the expression.
+
+- Attributes relevant for translators, tools, and other message operations,
+  but with no runtime impact:
+
+  - `example` — A literal value representing
+    what the expression's formatted value will look like.
+  - `note` — A comment on the expression for translators.
+  - `translate` — A boolean `yes`/`no` indicator communicating to translators
+    whether the expression should or should not be localised.
+  - `canCopy`, `canDelete`, `canOverlap`, `canReorder`, etc. — Flags supported by
+    XLIFF 2 inline elements
+
+## Requirements
+
+Attributes can be assigned to any expression,
+including expressions without an annotation.
+
+Attributes are distinct from function options.
+
+Common attributes are defined by the MF2 specification
+and must be supported by all implementations.
+
+Users may define their own attributes.
+
+Implementations may define their own attributes.
+
+Some attributes may have an effect on the formatting of an expression.
+These cannot be defined within comments either within or outside a message.
+
+Each attribute relates to a specific expression.
+
+An attribute's scope is limited to the expression to which it relates.
+
+Multiple attributes should be assignable to a single expression.
+
+Attributes should be assignable to all expressions, not just placeholders.
+
+## Constraints
+
+If supported by new syntax,
+the syntax should be easy to parse by both humans and machines.
+
+If supported by new syntax at the end of an expression,
+the reserved/private-use rules will need to be adjusted to support attributes.
+
+## Proposed Design
+
+Add support for option-like `@key=value` attribute pairs at the end of any expression.
+
+If the syntax for function options is extended to support flag-like options
+(see <a href="https://github.com/unicode-org/message-format-wg/issues/386">#386</a>),
+also extend expression attribute syntax to match.
+
+To distinguish expression attributes from options,
+require `@` as a prefix for each attribute asignment.
+Examples: `@translate=yes` and `@locale=$exprLocale`.
+
+Define the meaning and supported values of some expression attributes in the specification,
+including at least `@dir` and `@locale`.
+
+To support later extension of the specified set of attributes while allowing user extensibility,
+require custom attribute names to include a U+002D Hyphen-Minus `-`.
+Examples: `@can-copy=no`, `@note-link=|https://...|`.
+
+Allow expression attributes to influence the formatting context,
+but do not directly pass them to user-defined functions.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+
+### Do not support expression attributes
+
+If not explicitly defined, less information will be provided to translators.
+
+Function options may be used as a workaround,
+but each implementation and user will end up with different practices.
+
+### Use function options, but with some suggested prefix like `_`
+
+A bit less bad than the previous, but still mixes attributes and options into the same namespace.
+
+At least a no-op function is required for otherwise unannotated expressions.
+
+### Rely on semantic comments
+
+These will be defined within the message resource spec,
+so we introduce a dependence on that.
+
+Referring to specific expressions from outside the message is hard,
+esp. if a similar expression is used in multiple variants.
+
+Comments should not influence the runtime behaviour of a formatter.
+
+### Define `@attributes` as above, but do not namespace custom attributes
+
+Later spec versions will not be able to define _any_ new attributes
+without a danger of breaking implementations or users already using those names.