[ESW Wiki] Update of "its0601TechAttrAndTrans" by YvesSavourel

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The following page has been changed by YvesSavourel:
http://esw.w3.org/topic/its0601TechAttrAndTrans


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   * Initial Requirement: Self:its0505ReqAttrAndTrans
  
- = Attribute and Translatable Text =
+ = Avoid non-translatable attributes =
  
- TODO
+ Whenever possible, a schema should ensure that translatable text is stored in elements rather than attributes.
  
+ There are a number of issues related to storing translatable text in attribute values. Some of them are:
+ 
+  * The language identification mechanism (i.e. xml:lang) applies to the content of the element where it is declared, including its attribute values. If the text of an attribute is in a different language than the text of the element content, one cannot set the language for both correctly.
+ 
+  * In some languages, bidirectional markers may be needed to provide a correct display. Tags cannot be used within an attribute value. One can use Unicode control characters instead, but this is not recommended (see the W3C Note and Unicode Technical Report [http://www.w3.org/TR/unicode-xml/ Unicode in XML & Other Markup Languages]).
+ 
+  * It is difficult to apply to the text of the attribute value meta-information such as no-translate flags, designer's notes, etc. (Except when using mechanisms such as XPath or XPointer).
+ 
+  * The difficulty to attach unique identifiers to translatable attribute text makes it more complicated to use ID-based leveraging tools.
+ 
+  * Translatable attributes can create problems when they are prepared for localization because they can occur within the content of a translatable element, breaking it into different parts, and possibly altering the sentence structure.
+ 
+ All these potential problems do not occur when the text is the content of an element rather than the value of an attribute.
+

Received on Thursday, 19 January 2006 16:57:24 UTC