At 14:37 12/01/2005, Misha Wolf wrote:
A first step could be to compare the two standards bodies'
requirements for language tagging, to establish whether they are
compatible. Further steps could follow, depending on the outcome.
Note that while HTTP, for example, is an IETF standard, the Web
relies on it. Currently, the same language tagging standard is used
by HTTP, HTML's "meta" element, HTML's "lang" attribute and XML's
"xml:lang" attribute.
Sorry to come back on the particulars of the langtags debate. I do this
only to illustrate the real source of the problem (described in RFC 2418
part 2.3.
Misha documents very well the source of the problem: the HTML lang
attribute is acceptable for the Web (IMHO not for Semantic Web) and the
xml:lang attribute is not scalable. One first reason (lack of scripting)
has been identified. But this is not the only one. Another problem is
obviously the declaration "MUST" which cannot scale and creates a problem.
If I am correct the W3C documentation concerning xmls:lang is
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/ paragraph 2.12 language
definition. This document says: "A special
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#dt-attr>attribute named
xml:lang MAY be inserted in documents to specify the language used in the
contents and attribute values of any element in an XML document. In valid
documents, this attribute, like any other, MUST be
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#dt-attdecl>declared if it is
used. The values of the attribute are language identifiers as defined by
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#RFC1766>[IETF RFC 3066], Tags
for the Identification of Languages, or its successor; in addition, the
empty string MAY be specified."
This definition does not permit end to end interinteligibility (hence
interoperability for web services, content filtering, etc.) except in
closed customer groups sharing the same language dictionary, grammar,
semantic, etc. for an ISO 639 language. If the intent is a universal unique
multilanguage, by one single provider, this works. Otherwise it does not.
This is why in addition to adding the scripting one needs at list a type of
usage/function and an authoritative source information.
jfc
jfc
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