- From: Jim Whitehead <ejw@cse.ucsc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 09:24:19 -0700
- To: <Edgar@EdgarSchwarz.de>, <ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org>
> Also the drawing direction of the characters is implicitly encoded > in the characters themselves, isn't it ? From what I understand, not necessarily. > So I think that a label as a simple string of UNICODE characters would be > good enough and simple to implement too. > Not aesthetically perfect, but a working solution if you want to > draw people > from RCS, CVS, Clearcase to name a few, which heavily rely on labels. > So I would keep the label header as a simple UNICODE string. I am not opposed to labels. I just believe labels should be tagged with an identifier of the language of the label text. This is my best understanding of the intent of the IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages (described in RFC 2277, which is also IETF Best Common Practice (BCP) 18). Section 4.2 of RFC 2277 is very explicit: 4.2. Requirement for language tagging Protocols that transfer text MUST provide for carrying information about the language of that text. Protocols SHOULD also provide for carrying information about the language of names, where appropriate. Note that this does NOT mean that such information must always be present; the requirement is that if the sender of information wishes to send information about the language of a text, the protocol provides a well-defined way to carry this information. To resolve this issue, DeltaV needs to either: (a) Develop a plausible explanation for why label information is not human readable text. (b) Explain why label text, unlike all other human readable text, does not require language tagging. (c) Add a language tag to the label. In my opinion, choices (a) and (b) are high-risk, since they have a higher probability of causing the DeltaV draft to be sent back to the working group to resolve the i18n issues associated with labels. Choice (c) is low-risk, since it meets the letter and spirit of RFC 2277. Let me also note that the author of RFC 2277, Harald Alvestrand, is now the Chair of the IETF, which I interpret as indicating that the IETF's commitment to internationalization continues to be quite strong. - Jim
Received on Monday, 16 April 2001 12:25:53 UTC