Counting Heads

Jo Wilkes jwilkes at metabit.com
Thu May 29 13:24:23 CEST 2003


> Doug Ewell wrote:
> 
> > (b) multi-subtag languages like "zh-hakka" and "en-boont" are
> > inseparable
> 
> 
> That looks a practical problem to me.
> Software needs to treat the normal separable use of subtags in one way and 
> these inseparable subtags in a different way.
> 
> We ought to have a lookup table saying which are the inseparable subtags.

Adding yet another Lookuptable is not a good idea.

The problem with LUTs is that they need to be maintained. In the standard, in 
all the software that has them inside, on all of the installed sofware... a 
logic in the separator character saves all this maintenance.

IMHO, It would be better to have a specific character indicating that two 
subtags connected by this character are to be inseparable. (like with the space 
character vs. non-breakable space )

I have not checked whether the standard allows for this, but from my personal 
experience, this is the better choice. Software that does recognise this will 
handle it properly, other software will see the combination including said 
character as one subtag - which can be forwarded to default handlers etc.

just my EUR 0.02
-- 
Jo Wilkes




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