Text for i18n section
From: Jim Whitehead (ejw@cse.ucsc.edu)
Date: Fri, Sep 29 2000
From: "Jim Whitehead" <ejw@cse.ucsc.edu>
To: <ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org>
Cc: <geoffrey.clemm@rational.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 17:17:09 -0700
Message-ID: <NDBBIKLAGLCOPGKGADOJGEIBDLAA.ejw@cse.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Text for i18n section
Here is some new text for the i18n section, which I think may pass muster
better than the current text.
- Jim
--------------------------------
Internationalization Considerations
This specification has been designed to be compliant with the IETF Policy on
Character Sets and Languages [RFC2277]. Specifically, where human-readable
strings exist in the protocol, either their charset is explicitly stated, or
XML [REC-XML] mechanisms are used to specify the charset used. Additionally,
these human-readable srings all have the ability to express the natural
language of the string.
Most of the human-readable strings in this protocol appear in properties,
such as DAV:version-name, and DAV:creator-displayname. As defined by the
WebDAV Distributed Authoring Protocol [RFC2518], properties have their
values marshalled as XML. XML has explicit provisions for character set
tagging and encoding, and requires that XML processors read XML elements
encoded, at minimum, using the UTF-8 [UTF-8] encoding of the ISO 10646
multilingual plane. The charset parameter of the Content-Type header,
together with the XML "encoding" attribute, provide charset identification
information for MIME and XML processors. Proper use of the charset header
with XML is described in [RFC2376]. XML also provides a language tagging
capability for specifying the language of the contents of a particular XML
element. XML uses either IANA registered language tags (see [RFC1766]) or
ISO 639 language tags [ISO639] in the "xml:lang" attribute of an XML element
to identify the language of its content and attributes.
DeltaV applications, since they build upon WebDAV, are subject to the
internationalization requirements specified in [RFC2518] in Section 16,
Internationalization Considerations. In brief, these requirements mandate
the use of XML's character set tagging, character set encoding, and language
tagging capabilities. Additionally, they strongly recommend reading
[RFC2376] for instruction on the use of MIME media types for XML transport
and the use of the charset header.
Within this specification, a label is a human-readable string that is
marshalled as XML in request entity bodies, and also in the Target-Selector
header. When used in the Target-Selector header, the value of the label is
encoded using UTF-8.
General internationalization considerations that apply to all WebDAV
applications also apply to DeltaV applictions, and can be found in Section
16 of [RFC2518].
Normative References:
[RFC1766] H. T. Alvestrand, "Tags for the Identification of Languages." RFC
1766. Uninett. March, 1995.
[RFC2277] H. T. Alvestrand, "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages."
RFC 2277, BCP 18. Uninett. January, 1998.
[ISO-639] ISO (International Organization for Standardization). ISO
639:1988. "Code for the representation of names of languages."
[UTF-8] F. Yergeau, "UTF-9, a transformation format of Unicode and ISO
10646." RFC 2279. Alis Technologies. January, 1998.
Informational References:
[RFC2376] E. Whitehead, M. Murata, "XML Media Types." RFC 2376. U.C. Irvine,
Fuji Xerox Info. Systems. July, 1998.