RE: Accept-Language and q values

> Yes, Erik describes the IE behavior correctly but I too, wonder about the
> usefulness or even danger of including the q values in the accept-language
> string.  IE4 and above does include the q value to be http compliant but
> also orders
> the language codes according to user preference, highest priority first.
> The
> ordering is not required by http.
> 
[Carrasco]  
For most applications one does not probably needs the q and the order
is sufficient; indeed, I do not know of any browser that supports this.
But then, one cannot express "English" *or* "Spanish" on the same level;
i.e., without order. I cannot see when one could need to express
"no preference", but one never knows.

On the other hand, the need is very real in the server. Some sites must
be "language neutral"; i.e., if the browser does not expresses a preference,
it should present the "available linguistic options" and allow the user to
choose.

A work around in Apache is to set the default language to a dummy language
such as "xx" that point to the language list. But it would be better to have
explicit facilites. What about the other servers ?

Related to this is the processing of list of (language) variants;
i.e., the list of available linguistic versions. This could be implemented
in the:

- Client side
A "language button" in the browser (like "File", "Edit", ...).

-  Server side
Includes.

The browser must inform the server when to use the includes.

I was told that Apache could returns the variant list though I have not
tested it. Other servers ?

Regards
Tomas

Received on Monday, 31 January 2000 11:21:58 UTC