draft-phillips-langtags-04 /2.4.2 Maintaining private-use

[Tex Texin]

Thanks Mark, I am happy to be corrected if I misunderstood.

However, the private use subtags are what I was refering to:
"x" 1*("-" (1*15alphanum)) 

And whereas you can use qaa and QM today, qaa is not likely because using a
private primary language means giving up any language support you might have
with integrated software. 
QM is possible but potentially will conflict with some other assignment of
semantics to it by other software.

However, I can probably append x-texsecretswitch to existing tags, get the
expected language support plus use it to trigger specialized behavior in just
my programs (including backdoors and potential security risks) and not conflict
with anyone elses private codes, except where appending them exceeds the
maximum length for a tag.

I don't see why these subtags are needed or why software should attempt to
carry and maintain them.
Why not just leave the standard with the existing private use codes as good
enough?

If they are not getting a lot of use today why extend them?

tex

Mark Davis wrote:
> 
> That is incorrect. The current private use ISO 639 and ISO 3166 codes are
> valid codes in their respective standards. So I can in the current RFC 3066
> produce codes like:
> 
> en-QM (English with a private use region)
> qaa-US (Private use language with US region)
> 
> I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to respond to a number of the comments
> so far. Addison and I discussed them before he flew off to Russia, so I will
> try to answer them for the both of us in his absence, after the holiday
> weekend. However, I find that quite a few of them are on the order of the
> comment below; not recognizing that the current draft in many cases simply
> documents and makes more rigorous a pre-existing capability (from the
> current 3066).
> 
> Μаrk
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tex Texin" <tex at xencraft.com>
> To: "Doug Ewell" <dewell at adelphia.net>
> Cc: <ietf-languages at alvestrand.no>
> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 11:01
> Subject: Re: draft-phillips-langtags-04 /2.4.2 Maintaining private-use
> 
> > Doug,
> >
> > In the current situation only the entire tag is private. This limits its
> > usefulness since if you use a completely proprietary tag no other software
> will
> > do anything useful with it.
> >
> > The proposal though is to allow amending of supported tags with private
> > add-ons. This creates an expectation that the tag will be generally
> supported
> > and carry around the add-on with it. I suspect it will be used not only by
> > private agreement for interchange with others, but as note-to-self in some
> > applications. (e.g. Turn on this feature or that.)
> >
> > So it may be more generally used and therefore be a more significant
> issue. And
> > yet I am unclear as to the demand or need for this.
> >
> > tex
> >
> >
> > Doug Ewell wrote:
> > >
> > > Tex Texin <tex at xencraft dot com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Private use is a BAD thing where there are no agreements. Perhaps the
> > > > caution against them should be more strongly stated.
> > >
> > > I repeat what I said earlier this week:  Is it genuinely a problem, in
> > > the real world, that people are using private-use codes or tags where
> > > there is no agreement, leaving users clueless as to what they mean?
> > >
> > > Can anyone cite instances where this was an actual problem?
> > >
> > > Failing that, is the strength of the caution really a significant issue?
> > >
> > > -Doug Ewell
> > >  Fullerton, California
> > >  http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Ietf-languages mailing list
> > > Ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> > > http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages
> >
> > --
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> > Tex Texin   cell: +1 781 789 1898   mailto:Tex at XenCraft.com
> > Xen Master                          http://www.i18nGuy.com
> >
> > XenCraft             http://www.XenCraft.com
> > Making e-Business Work Around the World
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ietf-languages mailing list
> > Ietf-languages at alvestrand.no
> > http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages
> >

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tex Texin   cell: +1 781 789 1898   mailto:Tex at XenCraft.com
Xen Master                          http://www.i18nGuy.com
                         
XenCraft		            http://www.XenCraft.com
Making e-Business Work Around the World
-------------------------------------------------------------