draft-phillips-langtags-08, process, sp ecifications, "stability", and extensions

[John Cowan]

Dave Singer scripsit:

> It has to be application-specific which fallback happens.  If the 
> user says he's swiss french, and the the content has alternative 
> offers for swiss german or french french, which do you present?  If 
> the content actually differs for legal or geographic reasons ('the 
> legal representative in your country is', 'for copyright reasons this 
> edition differs in material ways from other countries'), then the 
> correct country but wrong language is the best answer.  If the desire 
> is simply for maximum intelligibility, then the reverse is true.

Absolutely, which is why the fallback rule isn't and can't be a
protocol-level transaction or (a fortiori) an interop issue.  It's
simply a useful default in many circumstances.

-- 
All Norstrilians knew what laughter was:        John Cowan
it was "pleasurable corrigible malfunction".    http://www.reutershealth.com
        --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrilia          jcowan at reutershealth.com