Re: rfc4646. Some analysis code

On 07/11/06, John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org> wrote:
> Dave Pawson scripsit:
>
> > No problem.... but how does it fit in with the
> >   langtag       = (language
> >                    ["-" script]
> >                    ["-" region]
> >                    *("-" variant)
> >                    *("-" extension)
> >
> > grouping? You make it sound like an alternate? is that right?
>
> Exactly.  You can see the new draft ABNF at
> http://inter-locale.com/ID/draft-ietf-ltru-4646bis-01.html
> (when replaced, it'll become -02, -03, etc. etc.)
Thanks John.


>
> > >"Grandfathered" is a semantic concept (the meaning of the tag cannot be
> > >deduced from its parts); "irregular" a syntactic one (the tag cannot be
> > >parsed into parts using the regular parsing algorithms).  All irregular
> > >tags are grandfathered, but not all grandfathered tags are irregular.
> > >Unfortunately this distinction was not clarified until after 4646 was
> > >published.

Would I be near the mark if I said 'established tags that we didn't
want to mess with?
(Grandfather designed them and we don't want to upset him :-)

But I do note the more formal language, and Addison lists the 'irregulars'.


> >
> > Mmmm. I won't pretend to understand that! I guess the discussion
> > was more than the resulting text :-)
>
> Okay, let me unpack that a bit.

<snip/>

>   You can recognize a
> tag like this using the ABNF, but if you try to understand its meaning
> piece by piece, you get the wrong answer.  All such tags are listed in
> the Language Subtag Registry.

So I guess the admonishment is 'check there first'?
>
> Furthermore, some of the grandfathered tags are also irregular: they don't
> match the language-script-region-variant pattern at all, and you cannot
> take them apart.  "i-hak" is an example of this: it means "Hakka Chinese".
> These tags are also listed in the Language Subtag Registry.

And luckily they're fairly stable!


>
> > One more if I may.
            ; that starts a grandfathered tag
> >
> > Why wasn't it
> >        i 1*2ALPHA ......
> > Any particular reason?
>
> That's not what the comment is telling you.  It says that various
> 2ALPHA and 3ALPHA subtags can begin a grandfathered tag, but the only
> 1ALPHA subtag ("singleton") that can begin one is "i".  Anyhow,
> that doesn't matter if you just use the list of 17 irregular tags
> directly and not worry about this definition.

Informative John. Thatnks. I'd like to add this to my page, but from what you
say it will be dated (by 4646bis) pretty soon. What timescales
please? Weeks or months?


regards


-- 
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk

Received on Tuesday, 7 November 2006 20:46:01 UTC