Language attributes- what are they?

[John Cowan]

Tex Texin scripsit:

> 3) Your test for locale vs language involving whether an API is needed seems
> suspect to me.
> If I am given a document with 3/4/5 and told it is English US, or even if I
> assume the origin, then it tells me (generally) how I should read (parse) it to
> understand it. I don't think it is just an api issue, anymore than knowing
> whether "chat" is talk or cat.

I agree completely.  Locales may be enough to specify how textual dates are
to be generated from binary ones, but it's the content tagging (suitably
interpreted) that tells how to parse a date contained in a document into
a binary form.  This is every bit as important.

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