LANGUAGE TAG REGISTRATION FORM

[Peter_Constable at sil.org]

Peter Constable wrote on 04/14/2003 01:34:45 PM:

> I agree with Michael here. The intent of the references portion of the
> registration form is to document what the nature of the distinction the
> requested tag is intended to denote. Saying "some system makes a
> distinction" doesn't tell anybody what that distinction is. Without
knowing
> the intended denotation, there isn't any basis for interoperation.

Addendum:

Mark is concerned about interoperability with .Net, for which MS has
defined CultureInfo objects with the following identities:

az 0x002C Azeri
Cy-az-AZ 0x082C Azeri (Cyrillic) - Azerbaijan
Lt-az-AZ 0x042C Azeri (Latin) - Azerbaijan

Since Microsoft is only making a three-way distinction, I would think that
registering az, az-Cyrl and az-Latn would be enough to provide
interoperability with .Net in this regard.

The only possible concern would arise if MS were already planning to define
others, e.g. Cy-az-AM or Lt-az-AM, but even then I would want to know *why*
MS is defining distinct CultureInfo objects: is it for linguistic
distinctions, or non-linguistic distinctions? Remember, CultureInfo can
encompass non-linguistic things that have in the past usually been
associated with locales.



- Peter


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Peter Constable

Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485