User control of collation, foreign matter

This is a last call comment from C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (cmsmcq@acm.org) on
the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-charmod-20020430/).

Semi-structured version of the comment:

Submitted by: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (cmsmcq@acm.org)
Submitted on behalf of (maybe empty): 
Comment type: substantive
Chapter/section the comment applies to: 3.1.5 Units of collation
The comment will be visible to: public
Comment title: User control of collation, foreign matter
Comment:
Thank you for specifying that "[S] [I] Software that allows users to 
sort or search text SHOULD allow the user to select alternative rules 
for collation units and ordering."  I am glad to see that you are not
requiring that software use the collation rules of the user's language
whether the user wants it to or not.

The requirement "[S] [I] When sorting and searching in the context of 
a particular language, it MUST be possible to deal gracefully with 
strings being compared that contain Unicode characters not normally 
associated with that language" appears to be unenforceably vague: the 
word "gracefully" seems impossible to define sharply enough to allow
objective determinations of whether a given spec or implementation
conforms with this requirement or not.  I would be loath to lose
the word "gracefully" from the text, but I don't believe it belongs in
a conformance requirement.


Structured version of  the comment:

<lc-comment
  visibility="public" status="pending"
  decision="pending" impact="substantive">
  <originator email="cmsmcq@acm.org" represents="-"
      >C. M. Sperberg-McQueen</originator>
  <charmod-section href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-charmod-20020430/#sec-CollationUnits'
    >3.1.5</charmod-section>
  <title>User control of collation, foreign matter</title>
  <description>
    <comment>
      <dated-link date="2002-07-12"
        >User control of collation, foreign matter</dated-link>
      <para>Thank you for specifying that "[S] [I] Software that allows users to 
sort or search text SHOULD allow the user to select alternative rules 
for collation units and ordering."  I am glad to see that you are not
requiring that software use the collation rules of the user's language
whether the user wants it to or not.

The requirement "[S] [I] When sorting and searching in the context of 
a particular language, it MUST be possible to deal gracefully with 
strings being compared that contain Unicode characters not normally 
associated with that language" appears to be unenforceably vague: the 
word "gracefully" seems impossible to define sharply enough to allow
objective determinations of whether a given spec or implementation
conforms with this requirement or not.  I would be loath to lose
the word "gracefully" from the text, but I don't believe it belongs in
a conformance requirement.</para>
    </comment>
  </description>
</lc-comment>

Received on Thursday, 11 July 2002 21:40:44 UTC