RE: Primary Language in HTML, XHTML and XML

> [Carrasco]
> > The filename should be considered acceptable to specify the primary
> > language. file is a registered URI scheme [US]. Examples:
> > 
> > myfile.en.html
> > myfile_en.html
> 
> [Jon Hanna]
> This isn't terribly useful in general IMO. It would be useful if you
> were reading /myfile.html in your preferred language of, say
> French, and the English was the original and/or definitive version.
> In this case you might follow a link to myfile_en.html that would
> be returned in English as that is what you want in that particular
> case for a particular purpose, despite your generally favouring
> French.
> In most cases the language I want is a matter of what I can cope
> with, not a matter of what I am interested in.

[Carrasco]

1) Is it useful to specify the primary language(s) ?
Yes.


2) *How* to specify the primary languages(s) ?

- Externally; e.g.,
   + HTTP header field Content-Language
   + Filename

- Internally; e.g.,
   + lang attribute


3) The filename
 - Filenames often have two metadata
    + language
    + format (MIME Type)

The language because in multilingual sites one has several linguistic
versions of the same file; e.g.,

 foo.en.html  (English)
 foo.es.html  (Spanish)

Indeed, Apache processes the above syntax in Tranparent Content
Negotiation (TC) and will put it in the HTTP header field
Content-Language.

Hence, a recommendation for language filenaming is very much needed.
One should combine this with the specification of the primary
language(s), the relation to the text processing language and the
behaviour of the inheritance.

Regards
Tomas


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Received on Thursday, 24 March 2005 11:36:16 UTC