Re: xml:lang [was Re: Outstanding Issues ]

On 07/03/2002 19:03:53 John Cowan wrote:
> Misha.Wolf@reuters.com scripsit:
>
> > I haven't seen Pat's examples, but want to stress that locale and
> > language are very different concepts and that xml:lang is defined for
> > language, not for locale.
>
> I agree with this principle completely, but ...
>
> > It is perfectly OK for someone in France to
> > write in English and for someone in the UK to write in French.  This
> > does not magically interchange the meanings of instances of "1,234" and
> > "1.234" found within their documents.
>
> .. this doesn't seem like a good example.  1,234 embedded in German
> text is going to be between 1 and 2, no matter where it was written;
> 1,234 embedded in us-en text is going to mean between 1000 and 2000,
> no matter where it was written.

I didn't provide the context.  Though in running text one would
interpret 1,234 and 1.234 as you describe, in RDF (as in XForms) we are
dealing with XML Schema datatypes.  In this context, the language of
nearby free-form text has no effect on the meaning of structured data
such as numbers or dates.  It would be useful to formalise this, either
by somehow specifying that the non-string datatypes are immune to
language, or by providing constructs enabling authors and authoring
tools to more easily avoid associating language with non-string
datatypes.  This is one of the places where something along the lines of
xml:lang="" would be useful.

Misha

> A better example is sorting: one may wish en_US rules for sorting
> even if the strings being sorted are in a variety of languages
> and marked as such.
>
> --
> John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>     http://www.reutershealth.com
> I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
> han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_





-----------------------------------------------------------------
        Visit our Internet site at http://www.reuters.com

Any views expressed in this message are those of  the  individual
sender,  except  where  the sender specifically states them to be
the views of Reuters Ltd.

Received on Thursday, 7 March 2002 16:37:05 UTC