RFC3066 bis: intro

[Peter Constable]

I'm finally getting around to catching up on this. Sorry for being slow.

Some suggested revisions for section 1:

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Human beings on our planet have, past and present, used a number of
languages. There are many reasons why one would want to identify the
language used when presenting or processing information.

In some contexts, information may be available in more than one
language, or resources (such as dictionaries) may be available to assist
in the understanding of different languages, and it may be necessary to
retrieve the information or resources according to linguistic
preferences specified by a user. 

Also, many types of information processing require knowledge of the
language in which information is expressed in order for that process to
be performed on the information; for example spell-checking,
computer-synthesized speech, conversion to Braille, or high-quality
print renderings. The language variety of information content and of
processing resources may need to be identified so that the appropriate
processing and resources can be applied to the given content.

One means of indicating the language used in information content is by
metadata labeling using a symbolic identifier for the given language.
These identifies can also be used for labeling processing resources, and
can by used in requesting information or resources to specify linguistic
preferences or requirements.

These identifiers can also be used to indicate additional attributes of
content that are closely related to the language. In particular, it is
often necessary to indicate specific information about the dialect,
writing system, or orthography used in a document or resource, as these
attributes may be important for the user to obtain information in a form
that they can understand, or important in selecting appropriate
processing resources for the given content. Such information may be
useful to specialists or may be important in understanding the structure
of the information and ways in which it should be processed.

This document specifies...
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Peter
 
Peter Constable
Globalization Infrastructure and Font Technologies
Microsoft Windows Division