My gut instinct is that it is a less than optimal solution to try to
use namespaces to differentiate natural languages. That's what
xml:lang= is for, after all.
<z>
<canonical>MD</canonical>
<name xml:lang="en">medical doctor</name>
<name xml:lang="fr">médecin</name>
<name xml:lang="zh-TW">...</name>
</z>
namespace, (XML) namespaces seemed designed to support localization
(e.g. i18n). Namespace safety seems to damper that somewhat, and I am
looking for an optimal pattern. Many list members here have worked
extensively with internationalization and namespaces, can anyone help me
find an optimal pattern to handle this:.
In a large XSLT2 project with lots of rich display vocabulary and
languages, we have (many different) elements that can include
display attributes like <z name="Displayed Name" .../>
To support i18n for those names, it seems natural to define
namespaces for each supported language, using the 2-letter
localization codes, as:
<global-element
xmlns:fr="http://www.somedomain.com/fr";
xmlns:en="http://www.somedomain.com/fr";
xmlns:de="http://www.somedomain.com/fr";
more-attributes=". . ."
>
<!-- . . . -->
<!-- and creating corresponding attributes in the displayed elements,
like: -->
<z name="MD" fr:name="Médecin" en:name="Medical Doctor"
more-attributes-and-content=". . ." />
<!-- . . . -->
<!-- as well as having other "context setting" elements that can define
locale, like: -->
<person lang="fr" more-attributes-and-content=". . ." />
<!-- and at display time, using the @lang attribute from the context
element (e.g. person) to match and select the "name" attribute from the
displayed element (e.g. z), in the proper namespace (e.g. fr), for
example. Directly matching localization codes with namespace prefixes,
could provide great i18n flexibility and simplicity. -->
</global-element>
Localization codes are stable, but namespace prefixes may not be.
Changing prefixes can seriously break this scheme. What could/should be
the best way/pattern to manage this in a (namespace) safe way?
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