- From: Cyril <cyril@chat.ru>
- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 20:59:20 +0400
- To: www-html@w3.org
Arguments for using symbolic names. For example, an HTML-file contains an Apocalypse copy and the author of the file wants to specify meta-information in this file with word Apocalypse in several languages such as Greek, Hebrew, English, French, German, Russian, Swedish, and so on. With symbolic names equipped with language property, it could be done easily: <META name = "keywords" content = "&Alpha-el;&pi-el;&omicron-el;&kappa-el;&alpha-el;&lambda-el;&upsilon-el;&pi-el;&sigma-el;&iota-el;&sigmaf-el;, &?-he;&?-he;&?-he;&?-he;&?-he;, apocalypse, &a-fr;&p-fr;&o-fr;&c-fr;&a-fr;&l-fr;&y-fr;&p-fr;&s-fr;&e-fr;, &O-ru;&te-ru;&ka-ru;&er-ru;&o-ru;&ve-ru;&ie-ru;&en-ru;&i-ru;&ie-ru;, ..."> How could you do this otherwise? Unlike lang attribute, using proposed character language property (like in the word &a-fr;&m-fr;&a-fr;&t-fr;&e-fr;&u-fr;&r-fr;) simplifies detection what natural language a word belongs to. At last, presenting characters with symbolic names is just an alternative way of character references. So anyone could use another method to represent characters, whatever one likes. For example, one could use Unicode. But sometimes, for example, when you receive your e-mail on an internet cafe's computer in a foreign country, you could be forced to read HTML-source. Look at example below; what is better to read, upper or lower one? (The upper one) ... ρεαλισμος ... (The lower one) ... &rho-el;&epsilon-el;&alpha-el;&lambda-el;&iota-el;&sigma-el;&mu-el;&omicron-el;&sigmaf-el; ... NOTE (ATTANTION, PLEASE): In addition to Symbolic Name method, there is also compact and convenient Transliteration method. I am trying to illustrate the transliteration below: Symbolic Name method &A-ru;&em-ru;&ie-ru;&er-ru;&i-ru;&ka-ru;&a-ru; &Alpha-el;&theta-el;&eta-el;&nu-el;&alpha-el; Transliteration method &A-ru;&m-ru;&ye-ru;&r-ru;&i-ru;&k-ru;&a-ru; &A-el;&th-el;&e-el;&n-el;&a-el;
Received on Friday, 10 August 2001 12:59:03 UTC