Language picking

[John Cowan]

Debbie Garside scripsit:
> Not bad :-)
> 
> But, in this instance, I would add... Display the top 10 languages by
> population/speakers followed by others in alphabetical order. 

Fair enough.  I was trying to handle only the generic case, where
we don't know anything about what's probable.

> I think it would be useful to discuss the various uses.  In other
> words, look at the end product first.  Which industries do we think
> will be using this data and in what way?  For instance, pick lists
> on web sites for Joe Public to navigate, the needs of archivists and
> libraries who may well need a more linguistic/relational style approach,
> web designers, software designers who are interested in ascertaining
> the locale, etc. etc. Each may have different priorities.

I think the archivists and librarians, who in principle may have to deal
with anything (especially when dealing with audio) will be the ones who
need the full power and generality of this.  No web site is going to be
localized in 7000 languages or even 700, so the problem doesn't arise.

-- 
John Cowan  cowan at ccil.org   http://ccil.org/~cowan
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