Re: Unicode-html attributes

Felix Sasaki wrote:

> This mail is forwarded on behalf of Amir Massoud Saffar.
>
> Felix
>
> ------- Forwarded message -------
> From: "Amir Massoud Saffar" <amirsaffarr@yahoo.com>
> To: "Felix Sasaki" <fsasaki@w3.org>
> Cc:
> Subject: Re: [Moderator Action] Unicode-html attributes
> Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 04:26:24 +0900
>
> Hi,
> I'll subscribe soon, but I'd like you to send that e-mail to them 
> before I  do that please.
> + I'd like to add some more information to my previous e-mail.
>
> I visited some international sites from BBC/Microsoft/Voice of  
> America...etc
> BBC has used the Lang tag: (The Lang tag is also to be used for  
> accessibility and
> helps search engines to list/find bilingual sites). Microsoft is also  
> using it on
> some of its bilingual sites(such as Microsoft/region/Turkey
> ::http://www.microsoft.com/turkiye/
> ::http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/
> But not on all it's international sections! (which doesn't make sense. 
> if  it is to be used
> for one language why not for all foreign languages!)
> I just thought maybe this info could help more.
>
> thanks
> Amir
>
> Felix Sasaki <fsasaki@w3.org> wrote:
> Hello Amir,
>
> You have sent this mail to www-international@w3.org . Since you are not
> subscribed to that list, the mail did not reach the list. Do you want me
> to subscribe you, so that you can send the mail again, or should I just
> forward the mail?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Felix Sasaki
>
> On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:00:35 +0900, Amir Massoud Saffar
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>> I'd like to know if the unicode tag
>> eg: > content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
>> is being used to let the agent know that the HTML doc
>> is using a language other than Latin, 
>
Hello Amir,

I perhaps will break an open door.

charset=utf-8 is to tell the agent that the document is in Unicode 
encoded utf-8, so that it can interpret the file.
I think all that you can guess from a utf-8 document is that it might 
mix texts from many languages without ambiguity, Latin or western 
language included.
Hence the need for the lang attribute. First, you can declare the 
primary language(s) of the document, i.e. to which audience(s) it is 
destinated. Second, you can declare the (one) specific language  of a 
part of the text, to allow agents/tools to apply some specific 
processing, e.g. styling, spelling...

Best regards,

Najib Tounsi

>> is there a
>> need to use the lang attribute to declare what
>> the language of the document is?
>>
>> Thanks
>> Amir
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Amir Saffar
>> E-mail: amirsaffarr@yahoo.com
>> Phone: 416 516 7279
>>
>>
>>

-- 
Najib TOUNSI (mailto:tounsi@w3.org)
Bureau W3C au Maroc (http://www.w3c.org.ma/)
Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingenieurs, BP 765 Agdal-RABAT Maroc (Morocco)
Phone : +212 (0) 37 68 71 74  Fax : +212 (0) 37 77 88 53
Mobile: +212 (0) 61 22 00 30

Received on Tuesday, 25 October 2005 14:36:20 UTC