What a Locale is.... (Re: [Fwd]: Response to Mark's message])

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]

--On tirsdag, april 15, 2003 12:12:39 +0100 Jon Hanna <jon at spin.ie> wrote:

> 4. The two, while separate, can easily be combined. Conversion between a
> format along the lines of zh-HK;Hant and something that treats the
> language and script as a single atomic "locale" is trivial. Those that
> require such a combined "locale" (for want of a better word) haven't
> demonstrated why this is of less use than the proposed zh-Hant-HK format.

actually the problem with such a format arises when you want to embed the 
combined identifier in another textual protocol element.

if, for instance, you put "accept-language: zh-HK;Hant" into a HTTP 
transaction, you will get a parse error because what is supposed to follow 
the semicolon is a Q value, not a script tag.

if you keep the new information in a new element, that's no problem. But 
then systems that 'treat the language and script as a single atomic 
"locale"' will likely only see one of them.

I could argue both sides of this argument with ease....