[Bug 17859] Mechanism to enable localisation of form controls and other locale-specific data

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=17859

--- Comment #30 from Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> ---
(In reply to Cameron Jones from comment #29)
> I think it might be better to start with some appraisal of whether
> auto-localization is a feature or a bug.

Not sure exactly what you mean by "auto-localisation", but from context it
looks like you mean the feature that exists today that causes form controls to
render according to the user's local platform conventions rather than having
the same UI for everyone.

If that is what you mean, then it clearly seems like a feature. The alternative
would be for type=date to show a Chinese calendar (since that's the most-widely
used calendar in terms of users), and I, for one, have no idea how to read
Chinese.


> What benefit is auto-localization providing today such that it warrants the
> necessity for an escape hatch?

The benefits are not what warrant an "escape hatch". This bug is just a feature
request from authors to be able to control the localisation more specifically.


> We must consider the eventuality that if an escape hatch is provided, will
> it be used by default? Does this not render the default behaviour a bug?

I don't understand what you mean. We can't change the defaults. Maintaining
backwards-compatibility is paramount.


> In lieu of some specific syntax to consider, i think this could be
> problematic as the locale will be defined through the same place as it is
> needed to be used.

I don't understand what you mean.


> As a declarative language, HTML by definition is a description of *what* the
> document means.

Yes.

> There are no useless or unimportant definitions.

That's clearly false. There's lots of ways of including useless or unimportant
HTML markup. For example:

   <span class=""></span>

...is semantically moot.


> Everything has an effect.

Not really.


> Therefore, supporting a model of copy/paste which is not
> simply a manifestation of referential transparency would violate the
> essential nature of a declarative language.

I'm not sure what you mean by "supporting". The simple fact of the matter is
that significant volumes of Web content are generated by authors who don't
understand the nuances of HTML yet, and they get their documents working by
copying and pasting something that works nearly as they want, and then mutating
it until it works well enough for them to deploy. I don't pass a value
judgement on this matter, it's just how it is.


> You can not say something has meaning, and then ignore it at will (or when
> *some* people use it incorrectly/without consideration for its effects). To
> do so would be to render valid uses invalid and "break things across the
> web"(tm).

I'm not sure to what you are referring here.


> If people have copy/pasted that their page is within the Inuit locale then
> lo(!) forever more it shall be.

It's not the semantic meaning we have to preserve, it's the user-visible end
result.

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Received on Tuesday, 29 July 2014 16:52:28 UTC