The limit of language codes

CE Whitehead cewcathar at hotmail.com
Fri Feb 16 21:44:29 CET 2007


>
>Speaking as the restrictive grumbler here:
>
>A HUGE danger with language tags is the temptation, once language tags are 
>successful, to cram ever-more information into them - because it's easier 
>to extend the information carried in one container than to add another 
>container.
>
>I believe the POSIX "locale" was a failure for exactly that reason - it 
>tried to jam together language, date format, currency codes and many other 
>things in a single entity - it tried to serve a multiplicity of purposes, 
>and fulfilled all of them badly.
>
>The current language tag has dragged in information about geographical 
>areas and script codes - these additions have had lots of arguments in 
>their favour, but their inclusion has made the language tag a MORE 
>difficult tool to use for identifying language.
>
>If you want to tag a document as "written by Shakespeare, in 
>Stratford-upon-Avon, around 1611", there's absolutely no substitute for 
>saying "author = Shakespeare, year = 1611, place = Stratford-upon-Avon". 
>Defining a language tag of "en-GB-1611-Shakespeare-Stratford" is an useless 
>exercise that is actively harmful to the proper development of tagging 
>systems.
>
>Forgetaboutit.
>
>The growling bear now returns to his cave.
>
>              Harald
Thanks!!!
But in any case, no matter what tags are about, you only need use the 
primary language tag if that is all you want (and then you can put the rest 
into other meta content tags if you have access to those); it's still up to 
the coder whether or not to include information about country, etc.

--C. E. Whitehead
cewcathar at hotmail.com

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