Re: browser language tags

Hi Martin,

On 16 Jun 2009, at 09:35, Martin J. Dürst wrote:

> Hello André,
>
> On 2009/05/06 22:29, André (小山) Schappo wrote:
>>
>> There is significant difference between browsers in the set of  
>> language
>> tags available for user selection. It would be of benefit if there  
>> were
>> an agreed set of language tags that were incorporated into all  
>> browsers.
>> Perhaps some sort of registration system similar to
>> <http://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry> except for
>> fully formed language tags instead of subtags.
>
> Who would be allowed to register there? How could we force browser  
> vendors to follow this registry?

I am thinking an open registry with moderation by knowledgeable persons.

I imagine that browser vendors would willingly adopt registered  
language tags in addition to the set they currently support. I  
envisage that those that register a language tag would have a real/ 
innovative need/application for that language tag. The language tag  
registry would guide the browser vendors and form a reference source  
for applied language tags.

>
>
>
>> This would pave the way for interesting applications of language  
>> tags in
>> browsers.
>>
>> eg
>>
>> Take a youtube like site (lets call it signtube) that also has a  
>> signed
>> language version of a video that is shown in parallel. Now take the
>> language subtag:
>>
>> Type: language
>> Subtag: sgn
>> Description: Sign Languages
>>
>> Different regions have different sign languages.
>>
>> Then register the language tags
>>
>> sgn-GB (British Sign Language)
>> sgn-JP (Japanese Sign Language)
>> sgn-CN (Chinese Sign Language)
>> ...etc...
>
> Please note that draft-ietf-ltru-4645bis deprecates codes such as  
> sgn-GB in favor of ISO 639-3 three-letter codes (gss for sgn-GB).

Thank you for that info. Interesting and illuminating.

>
>
>> Then, for example, if I had my browser set to sgn-JP I would see the
>> video on signtube signed in Japanese Sign Language.
>
> Why would this be helped by having an accepted list of languages for  
> the browsers? Even without that, you can set your browser's  
> preference to include jsl (sgn-JP), and if that's available on  
> signtube, it can easily be served. The big obstacle to that is not  
> an uniform list in the browser, but the cost of translation.
>

I am using firefox and currently there are only the standard (not sure  
who's standard :-)) language tags available for user selection. So,  
currently, it is not just a matter of setting browser preferences.  
When I want a different language tag then I use the firefox extension  
"Modify Headers" to change the http header Accept-Language. I  
currently have Modify Headers set up for en-Brai, zh-Brai, ja-Brai, ko- 
Brai (for my experimentation with adaptive websites) which are not  
available in the firefox set of language tags.

So, if, for example :-

I were to register ja-Brai in a language tag registry and if browser  
vendors were to incorporate those language tags in the registry then  
ja-Brai would be user selectable by all users.

> Regards,    Martin.
> -- 
> #-# Martin J. Dürst, Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University
> #-# http://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp   mailto:duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp


André 小山 Schappo
http://国际化域名.lboro.ac.uk/

Received on Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:31:42 UTC