Re: meta content-language

Julian Reschke 2008-08-22 09.06:

> Leif Halvard Silli wrote:
>> Ian Hickson 2008-08-21 03.36:

>>> <html lang=""> only sets the language for the content of the <html> 
>>> element, it doesn't set the language for, e.g., comment nodes outside 
>>> the <html> element. See the definition of lang="" in HTML5 for details. 

    [ ... ]

> It's called "http-equiv" for a reason. Using it is equivalent to having 
> "Content-Language: ru" in the HTTP response, thus it applies to the 
> whole document.


Actually, we discuss a secondary use. Hence this is not at all 
given. The way Ian describes it, if we have this code:

<!-- Still in English! --><DOCTYPE html >
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="ru" >
<html lang="en" >

Then the META element only speaks about the HTML comment /outside/ 
<html/>. Very cryptic, if you ask me.

Thus, the current draft opens up the possibility that the document 
actually isn't aimed at a Russian audience at all. It could be 
that the person who created the Web page only wanted to specify 
the language of those comments he placed outside <html />.

The very idea that @http-equiv can specify the language of 
something @lang cannot specify /in itself/ opens for this misuse.

If there actually is a need for specifying the language of a HTML 
comment outside <html/> (I did not know that comments inherited 
the language of its parent actually), then this should be linked 
to something else.

Ian said he was open to disallow http-equiv="content-language", 
and so I guess that he either doesn't see any real need for 
specifying the language of such comments, or that he has an 
alternative proposal. But why not let <html lang=""> decide?
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Friday, 22 August 2008 14:08:22 UTC