xml:lang und kgV / ggT ;-)

Hi,

I think I mentioned a similar problem before, but it occurred to me only
recently when going through the content specs again that there are a
couple of cases of content markup where the default rendering is
explicitly language-dependent (even more so than in the case of different 
digit character sets).

I'm talking, of course, about lcm and gcd.  As in English, the German
language default rendering of this operator consists of the first letters
of the term used to denote this concept, and I suspect that many more
languages use that technique common to German and English, too.  Hence, in
German, the default rendering for <gcd/> is  ggT  (notice the mixed
lower/uppercase) for "groesster gemeinsamer Teiler", and that for <lcm/>
is  kgV  for "kleinstes gemeinsames Vielfaches".

Since XML explicitly prescribes the xml:lang (sp?) attribute for this
purpose, I submit that MathML needs to add some general comments as to its
use in driving the rendering process to some extent in the appropriate
places, and some specific comments for the lcm and gcd cases. Indeed, in
the latter cases I think that examples with default renderings in a couple
of different languages might be in order.

Note that this is different from the case where different 2D layouts are
used in different mathematical cultures. In this case, the same basic
layout and naming technique is used; it's just that the underlying
language from which the components of the rendering are derived differ
from language to language.  Hence, xml:lang (instead of a locale
parameter) is the correct parameter in these cases (and probably in other
<csymbol/> cases) to derive the correct rendering specifics from.

 -- Andreas

____________________________________________________________
"The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today 
all the exhilaration of a vice." -
G.K.Chesterton: A Defense of Humilities, The Defendant, 1901 
                           www.chesterton.org/acs/quotes.htm

Received on Tuesday, 11 April 2000 19:29:59 UTC