Proposal for a subtag registration (fr-2004-ORTOGRAF or fr-ortograf ?)

[Stephane Bortzmeyer]

On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 10:05:12AM -0500,
 Mario Périard <mario_periard at hotmail.com> wrote 
 a message of 202 lines which said:

> If we were "mainstream" we would already have our main code and a
> subtag would be useless.

It seems there is a deep misunderstanding of language tags here. "fr"
*is* a subtag, like "ortograf" or "JP" or "Cyrl" or "scotland". There
is no such thing as a "main code", in the language tag world. The
first subtag (which is not "main") is the language code and only
languages can have one, *not* orthographies. 

> We can't create a translation team for localize LInux, Gnome,
> KDE... if we do not have an official language subtag. 

Who said so? Is it a rule in Gnome or KDE? If so, please provide
references. Anyway, they are free software so, even if your
localization is not accepted, you can still publish it.

> we haves thousands of books (public domain) which are ready to be
> translated.

A small warning: such boasting does little to convince people of your
seriousness. Please provide *translated* books, not vague claims
("ready to be translated" is not english, nor french, it is newspeak).

> We use the code "frm" on our site precisely because only official
> subtags are allowed by our content manager software.

If so (but I doubt it), this software is seriously broken and this
deserves a bug report. But, even if it is true, "fr" is the proper
language code. Your site is *not* in "frm", it is in french (it would
be in french even if written in the arabic script).

> I suggest the subtag 'ortograf'. I can re-submit a registration form
> if it is required.

I had the impression that the main issue was not the subtag choosen
but the lack of precise references.

> Frankly, don't you think that a community of impaired people deserve
> a recognition as well as 2 or 3 scholars who study the spelling of a
> man, Jean Nicot, in the 16th century (frm-1606nict), futhermore if
> this recognition will be put an end to their isolation? You can make
> a difference to make theirs lives better.

Again, there is a deep misunderstanding. The subtag registry is not
populated according to a "beauty contest" between various contenders,
after a judgment on their worthiness. It is populated when and only
when someone requests a registration, follows the rules, and accepts
to reply to the questions raised. Sure, it is painful. But this is the
way to avoid political judgments on the worthiness of Jean Nicot
vs. impaired people.