OS X 10.2.4 non-standard & unconstitutional

[John Cowan]

Michael Everson scripsit:

> Well, this is about as untrue as you can get.
> 
> In the first place, no language tag is involved. What is involved is 
> an informative user string in Apple Mac OS software. This has nothing 
> to do with RFC 3066 or my role as IETF language tag reviewer.

Ah.  I had supposed that the tag ga-ie was underlying this.

> In the second place, Marion's claim that there is anything 
> "unconstitutional" about the use of the word "Gaelic" to denote the 
> Irish language is a load of piffle. It is based on a misuse of the 
> word "unconstitutional" and is simply a red herring, nothing more 
> than a rhetorical device.

What is declared by law does not exclude what is not declared, unless
the law contains exclusive language of some sort.

> In the third place, while Marion seems to be trying to blame me 
> personally for insulting the Irish language, I am not responsible for 
> the informative user-string in question. I am however partially 
> responsible for the specification of the two locales for Ireland 
> which ship in Mac OS X, and am, rightly, proud of my association with 
> Apple and of the locales in question.
> 
> In the fourth place, the software has been available worldwide for 
> nine months and it is only in the last two days that any "Irish 
> objectors" have turned up. I have, however, as I have said elsewhere, 
> raised the question with my NSAI colleagues, who are also Irish, in 
> order to determine whether an NSAI recommendation ought to be made.

That seems a satisfactory resolution on the standards front.

> Finally, I would like to request that Marion please watch what she is 
> saying. She appears to be attempting to defame me either personally 
> or professionally on a public forum, however studiously she manages 
> to avoid typing my name.

IANAL, but there have been many cases in which publications were held
libelous though no person was mentioned, if recipients of the publication
held an honest and reasonable belief that a particular person was intended.
"IETF langtag reviewer", being unique, is as good as a name, though uniqueness
is not even required: it was held libelous in the 19th century merely to
refer to "a certain factory in the south-east of Ireland".

-- 
Real FORTRAN programmers can program FORTRAN    John Cowan
in any language.  --Allen Brown                 jcowan at reutershealth.com