Buggy language negotiation - w3.org/standards/webdesign/i18n

An I18N article specifies: [0]

]]   It is important to specify a default file, since a user who 
doesn't have either English [ … snip … ] would otherwise receive a HTTP 
406 result (NOT ACCEPTABLE) rather than a file. [[

But here is one I18N page which doesn't follow this advice, and thus 
causing problems: http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/i18n


Do this, to replicate the bug:

0) Use non-English localization of Windows XP or Mac OS X (I tested 
Norwegian localization of Windows XP as well as several localizations 
of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.)
1) Open Safari (Windows or Mac) or Internet Explorer 8
2) Open the following URL: http://www.w3.org/i18n

   (You then land on the following URL: 
   <http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/i18n>)
3) Locate and click on the link 'Tools' (which points to
   http://www.w3.org/International/tools/)

Expected result: To see the content of the Tools page.
Actual result - Safari: '406 Not Acceptable' response with this message:
   ]]
      Available variants:
      * [link:]tools.en.php , 
               type application/x-httpd-php,
               language en, charset utf-8
   [[

Actual result - Internet Explorer 8: Also a 406 HTTP error message (but 
with a message from IE stating that it cannot display the Web site 
format.)

For Firefox I got the same, negative result as well, if I removed 
English from the list of Accept-Language: languages. (I'm not sure if 
Firefox, by default, include 'en'.)

Other web browsers should show the same result if you remove English 
from the list of accepted languages.

NOTE: Due to a bug [1] Webkit (with Chrome as exception) only shows a 
single language tag per Accept-Language: header. 


[0] 
http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-apache-lang-neg#defaults

[1] https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3510

-- 
Leif Halvard Silli

Received on Sunday, 21 August 2011 17:18:30 UTC