To: ietf-822(_at_)dimacs(_dot_)rutgers(_dot_)edu
Subject: Re: language tags
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 93 13:49:46 -0500
One thing I would like to mention (though I fear that it won't do
any good) is that numeric codes and two-letter abbreviations
*suck*. I would very much rather see "language=English" than
"language=EN" or "language=20". I am aware of technical reasons
(i.e. implementation cop-out) for preferring the "tighter"
encodings, as well as political reasons (i.e. should it be
"language=German" or "language=Deutsch"?), but I always hate to
see the top-level appearance and usability of something suffer
because of inadequacies in the development process.
Brief, unique codes are *great* for machine use. It's not a cop-out. MIME
software will be more robust if implementors don't have to account for all
of the variant ways to spell a language name.
For human use, we can suggest that an appropriate comment
follow the language parameter. Something like:
content-type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;language=20 (English)
A decent MIME mail reader probably shouldn't show me the content-* headers
anyway. (unless I ask to see them)
Keith
P.S. I also like using a number because it's a clue to an implementor to
actually READ THE SPECIFICATION to see what the number means.