registry vs. extensions...

[han.steenwijk at unipd.it]

Addison Phillips <aphillips at webmethods.com> scripsit:

> If I read it correctly, a search for "x-de-DE-mySubtag" does NOT find
> "de-DE". "de-DE at mySubtag" would find such a match. It would be a way of
> extending the generative mechanism for use with items that do not rise to
> the level of general usage. There is still the option of registering a tag
> (and there are obviously cases where that is required over the use of an
> extension), but it might reduce the need to create fully-realized, complex,
> registered sets of tags and solve some of the dialect/minority language
> issues grappled with on this list in the past.

It might be worthwile to think about a way to distinguish between the cases 
where registration would be required and where it would not be. What would be 
this "general usage" which helps in qualifying for registration? Judging by the 
tags already registered at IANA, tag strings consisting of one (primary) subtag 
representing the language name followed by two subtags representing, in 
hierarchical order, geographical varieties thereof have been deemed 
necessary/useful on at least one occasion (zh-min-nan). A similar tag is found, 
only as an example, in the RFC 3066 text itself: sgn-US-MA.  

=================
Prof. Han Steenwijk
Universita di Padova
Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature Anglo-Germaniche e Slave
Sezione di Slavistica
Via Beldomandi, 1
I-35139 Padova

e-mail: han.steenwijk at unipd.it
tel.: (39) 049 8278669
fax:  (39) 049 8278679

-------------------------------------------------
This mail sent through IMP: webmail.unipd.it