[Bug 10152] [polyglot] i18n comment 5 : Mention lang and xml:lang

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10152

--- Comment #13 from Leif Halvard Silli <xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no> 2011-03-09 16:51:40 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #12)

> This doesn't disallow the use of the meta element (eg. when used as metadata),
> but it makes irrelevant the mechanism associated with it for defining the
> default language of the document.


But don't you agree, that authors needs to be made aware that they are, in
effect (like it or not) declaring a language on the HTML side if they do use an
element such as this:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="ru"/>

?

In other words: If an author does use the above element, then, in the HTML DOM,
this will be perceived as the author had used <html lang="ru">. As a result, we
get a difference between HTML DOM and XML DOM, which is the worst sin, in
Polyglot Markup.

I don't want to forbid anything. I just want that when an author does use an
element such as the above, then Polyglot Markup REQUIRES that the <html> tag
contains a language declaration, like so:

<html lang="ru" xml:lang="ru" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

Or, like so for that matter (the language does not need to reflect the <meta>
element):

<html lang="en" xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

Authors must be made aware of all pitfalls within what is permitted to do, that
can create different DOMs. 

Currently, HTML5 only permits those variants of the <meta
http-equiv="content-language" content="*"/> that DO affect the DOM. So, unless
HTML5 opens up an allows also those variants which have no effect on the
document language, then we can simplify the note to say that 

<html lang="*" xml:lang="*" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

is required EVERYTIME the document has a 

<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="*"/>

declaration.

But as HTML5 is currently defined, I cannot accept that Polyglot Markup permits
 <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="*"/> to be used without a
REQUIREMENT  that authors to use xml:lang and lang on the root element.

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Received on Wednesday, 9 March 2011 16:51:44 UTC