Re: [Bug 26614] change "violation of Unicode" notes to something less scary (per Unicode)

On Fri, Aug 29, 2014 at 5:23 PM, <bugzilla@jessica.w3.org> wrote:

> I really had problems parsing this sentence. One problem is that two
> clauses
> start with "as". I suggest changing the connective for the second clause to
> "because", and maybe moving that clause to the start of the sentence. Other
> improvements might work too.
>
> Also, unless this is clear from e.g. a link that's missing in the text
> version
> in this email, it would also be useful to be specific about whether the
> "decode
> algorithm" is something in the Unicode spec or in the encoding spec.
>
> In addition, "before an encoding ... is chosen" looks problematic to me
> because
> 1) "checking and using a BOM" also actually may choose an encoding, and 2)
> because the "to encode a byte stream" makes the structure difficult to
> parse
> (my first (and second and third) parse was "checking ... happens before an
> encoding").
>
> I suggest something along the lines of:
> "A byte order mark has priority over an encoding label..."
>


​Or even just splitting the sentence and making each step explicit (and
avoiding the semi-archaic "deemed"):

OLD
Checking for and using a byte order mark happens before an encoding to
decode a byte stream is chosen, as seen in the decode algorithm, as is
deemed more accurate than any label.​

NEW
As the first step in choosing an encoding to decode a byte stream, there is
a check for a byte order mark. If one is found, it is used to determine the
encoding, because the byte order mark is considered to be more accurate
than any encoding label in the stream. Only if a byte order mark is not
found is the stream itself checked for an encoding label. This policy is
reflected in the decode algorithm.


Mark <https://google.com/+MarkDavis>

*— Il meglio è l’inimico del bene —*