Re: 8 characters

Hello Addison and I18N Core WG,

The SSML subgroup reviewed this topic (and your suggestion to adopt  
the "p" extension space) in our call last week.  Based on our reading  
of both the syntax for language tags and, in particular, extension  
tags, as well as the description of the extended filtering algorithm,  
we do not believe there is any problem with defining extension tags  
containing hyphens (meaning that the extension tag following the 'p'  
singleton may consist of multiple hyphen-delimited subtags).


In addition to the ABNF definition itself, the two most relevant  
statements we found in BCP 47 are

5646, sec. 2.2.6:  "All subtags following the singleton and before  
another singleton are part of the extension."

and 5647, sec. 3.3.2:  "Else, if the language tag's subtag is a  
"singleton" (a single letter or digit, which includes the private-use  
subtag 'x') the match fails."


The latter suggests that singletons and their extensions cannot be  
used in filtering, which is as we would expect for our registry.


Can you please let us know whether or not you agree with our reading,  
and if not, explain why the quoted statements above do not govern in  
this case?

Thanks!

-- dan

On Jan 19, 2010, at 11:37 AM, Phillips, Addison wrote:

> Hello Dan,
>
> There is no chance that the eight character limit can be extended  
> for reasons of compatibility. Using “-“ to continue a tag might have  
> some unintended side-effects. Notably, matching and truncation of  
> language tags assumes that subtags can be removed at the hyphen mark.
>
> If you can’t stay within an eight character limit, you might  
> consider having a “short name” field for use in language tags (as an  
> alias). The subtags don’t have to be perfectly mnemonic.
>
> Addison
>
> Addison Phillips
> Globalization Architect -- Lab126
>
> Internationalization is not a feature.
> It is an architecture.
>
> From: public-i18n-core-request@w3.org [mailto:public-i18n-core-request@w3.org 
> ] On Behalf Of Dan Burnett
> Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:13 AM
> To: public-i18n-core@w3.org; Matt Womer; kazuyuki@w3.org
> Cc: W3C Voice Browser Working Group
> Subject: Fwd: 8 characters
>
> Forwarding to entire I18N core group.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>
> From: Dan Burnett <dburnett@voxeo.com>
> Date: January 13, 2010 1:24:10 PM EST
> To: Addison Phillips <addison@amazon.com>
> Subject: 8 characters
>
> Addison,
>
> After I left the call it occurred to me that our first entry that we  
> want to create, "pinyin2001", would not meet your 8-character  
> restriction.
>
> Is there any possibility for either a) increasing that character  
> limit, or b) allowing for us to use '-' to continue our tags?
>
> I expect that the character length limit, as in MSDOS, will be the  
> biggest sticking point.
>
> -- dan
>
>