Re: code, samp, kbd, var

Lachlan Hunt wrote:

> code, samp and var have a practical application in translation tools 
> like Babel Fish.  Their contents won't be translated.  That makes the 
> most sense for code, since you can't expect to translate code and still 
> expect it to compile or execute.  Whether or not it should apply to samp 
> and var is probably debatable, but that's a minor theoretical issue that 
> isn't particularly relevant, since this is what the tool actually does.

OK, the last point is very interesting, but what it it suggests to me
(at least) is that Babelfish isn't the least interested in the actual
semantics of <code>, <samp> or <var> and is interested only
in the property that they should be not translated.  That suggests
in turn that what is really needed is a "translatable" attribute
(or an analogous mechanism) since the very last thing we want
to encourage is the hiding of non-translatable stretches of
text in completely inappropriate tags (<code>, <samp>, <var).

Philip Taylor

Received on Monday, 14 May 2007 11:01:30 UTC