Encoding scripts in tags: evil or just unpleasant?

[John Cowan]

Peter_Constable at sil.org scripsit:

> I don't know the situation well enough to know how dominant either script
> is, but perhaps if there's any debate about whether Cyrillic is dominant
> enough, maybe that suggests it isn't dominant enough ?? I.e. perhaps we
> should only consider a default script to be implied by a language ID if
> there is no reasonable doubt that it is appropriate -- if it's completely
> obvious ??

I agree: only if completely obvious.  I once got into a debate where I
said that position X on issue Y was controversial, and someone replied
"It's not controversial at all!"  I contended (to no avail) that the
fact that he was arguing with me proved that I was right: he and I
by ourselves instantiated the controversy I claimed to exist!

-- 
John Cowan  jcowan at reutershealth.com  www.reutershealth.com  www.ccil.org/~cowan
"The exception proves the rule."  Dimbulbs think: "Your counterexample proves
my theory."  Latin students think "'Probat' means 'tests': the exception puts
the rule to the proof."  But legal historians know it means "Evidence for an
exception is evidence of the existence of a rule in cases not excepted from."